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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27637016">The Necromancer Next Door</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourAndCity/pseuds/ColourAndCity'>ColourAndCity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sin-ui Johwa [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>K-pop, Stray Kids (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Actual Murder, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Animal Attack, Arson, Attempted Murder, Blood, Blood and Injury, Cat Boys, Cats, Choking, Corpses, Demon Summoning, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fae &amp; Fairies, Fae Magic, Familiars, Guest House, Implied Murder, Multi, Murder, Necromancy, Nightmares, Nobody who dies actually stays dead and death is only used for humour, Platonic Relationships, Resurrection, Rituals, Romantic Friendship, Sleep Paralysis, Stabbing, Swearing, Temporary Character Death, Undead, Witches, cat boy in a cage, dark humour, descriptions of food, hell fire, in the air fryer for 20 minutes at 180 degrees</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:34:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>49,242</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27637016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourAndCity/pseuds/ColourAndCity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Having grown up in the secluded rainforests of Australia, Felix wasn’t quite used to the bustling human world just yet. Being of both fae and human witch lineage, he was determined to use his unique abilities to make a name for himself so he packed up his meager belongings and along with his brushtail possum familiar Alfie he set off to enroll in a specialty college some 7,000 km away.</p><p>After his first meeting with his counselor in Seoul he was exhausted. Unfortunately, having come straight from the airport he wouldn’t be able to rest just yet as he still needed to find somewhere to stay. His eyes scanned the large bulletin board looking for any sort of cheap room to no avail. That was until a young man came by, pinning up a notice advertising a guest house.</p><p>Minho was a human witch—and former student at said school—who had just recently inherited his family’s old decrepit guest house and had been having trouble actually attracting guests. Desperate was an understatement.</p><p>“Wow that price seems almost too good to be true.” Felix huffed. “But me and Alfie just got into town and are in need of a place to stay.”</p><p>“You’re in luck! We happen to have some vacancy!” Minho replied. “You don’t mind cats, do you?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Han Jisung | Han &amp; Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin &amp; Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Lee Felix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sin-ui Johwa [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>116</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>222</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Welcome to the next spinoff from the Sin-ui Johwa universe! A quick forewarning that this story will potentially be a lot more violent (re: casual murders and resurrections, ass-kickings, etc.) than previous stories in the AU but that violence is mainly to play into the dark humour of each scenario and the over-the-top dramatics involved in the misuse of necromancy. It should be noted that the relationships displayed in this fictional story are in no way representative of healthy relationships between humans and/or animals and are purely for entertainment purposes.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>As was common with many witch families, Minho’s family had once been part of a much larger coven. Unfortunately Minho had never really known the majority of his extended family due to the coven becoming substantially fractured over the decades but somehow the familiar ties still held strong. It was only after a series of unexpected and quite unusual events surrounding these mysterious family members that led to Minho unintentionally inheriting a guest house from one of his older relatives once or twice removed. He had never in his wildest dreams expected that he would own property in Seoul, let alone an entire guest house. Originally the prospect, while daunting, had seemed like a challenge he was willing to take on. However he soon learned that this task would be a lot more difficult than he ever could have imagined.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been six short months since Minho had relocated himself to one of the northern neighbourhoods of Seoul and had taken over the guest house. The house was located only a short walk from one of the largest supernatural specialty colleges in the country and he figured due to this prime location it would be easy to find boarders as students were always coming and going. That was much easier said than done as the guest house laid empty month after month. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The guest house itself had definitely seen better days but it was by no means uninhabitable. It was a fairly small two-storey house squeezed onto an even smaller plot of land at the top of a steep hill deep in the backstreets of Ihwa-dong. From the outside it looked slightly rundown but more so in a quaint way than a horror film way. Most passersby would probably not have even noticed that the guest house was there save for a small sign hung above the front gate, slightly obscured by the leaves of a large ginkgo tree. But for those who did notice, most did not stop to look for long as a constant dark and foreboding feeling would often creep over anyone who approached the property.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>According to the locals, despite nothing nefarious ever taking place there, the house had garnered itself a less than stellar reputation simply for having an unnatural energy about it and no one who was even remotely familiar with the area wanted to stay there. Minho tried everything in his power to ward off this supposed dark and unnatural energy and to entice people to stay, placing the odd talisman here or there and even going so far as to put up new signs and advertisements stating it was under new management but even after living there for nearly half a year he had never once had a guest that lasted more than a single night and never once experienced for himself the sinister energy that kept driving people away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the days continued to fly by and the new fall semester was about to start up, Minho was desperately trying to find boarders. As it turned out, his relatives were not exactly the best at paying their property taxes and there was a large amount overdue and Minho was now struggling financially to make ends meet. If he couldn’t start bringing in any sort of income he would risk losing the property and he knew he would never hear the end of it from both his immediate family and the rest of the coven if he were to fail. So despite setback after setback, he was still determined to succeed ...mostly because he had no other choice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was Minho’s last chance. He had been desperately canvassing the neighbourhood and nearby campus all afternoon trying to attract any sort of boarder who wouldn’t immediately be scared off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then a silver-haired, sparkly-eyed foreigner walked into his life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Name’s Minho by the way, I run the guest house on the flyer.” He said, quickly wiping his sweaty palm on his pants before extending his hand towards Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix. And this is my familiar Alfie.” Felix replied with a kind smile, motioning to the fuzzy creature perched his shoulder with a slight tilt of his head. “We just flew in from Australia this morning and I have to admit I was losing hope at actually finding a place that I could afford. I had even started to contemplate sleeping in one of those 24 hour gaming cafes I had seen by the bus stop. You’re honestly a lifesaver Minho.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix took Minho’s hand and gave it a firm yet slightly frantic shake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, let me take your bag!” Minho offered as he grabbed Felix’s oversized duffle bag out of his hands and began ushering towards the street. “It’s only about a twenty minute walk from here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, uh, thanks!” Felix replied warmly, relinquishing the bag while slinging his hand-me-down broom over one shoulder as his possum Alfie nervously clung to the other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However as Minho tried to lift the duffle he found it was impossibly heavy to the extent that he could barely lift it off the ground. He let out a strained grunt as he tried once more, putting his full bodyweight into it before he was finally able to succeed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn, what have you got in here? A ton of bricks?” Minho said with a laugh as he struggled to sling it over his shoulder, nearly knocking himself off balance in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry.” Felix replied sheepishly while giving the back of his neck and anxious rub. “I’ve never really left home before so I might have overpacked just a little.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“S’all good, I needed a workout anyways.” Minho joked as he began to lead the way. “Follow me and we’ll be home before you know it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time they had reached the guest house some twenty or thirty minutes later, Minho’s forehead was dripping with sweat and he was panting for breath, wheezing with every step. But he had offered to carry Felix’s bag and he absolutely refused to go back on his word and somehow have that even slightly affect Felix’s decision to stay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really sure you’re okay?” Felix asked as he lightly hovered on his rickety old broom beside Minho, having decided to forego the three-dozen steps leading up to this portion of the street and fly instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m, guh, fine!” Minho gasped out, collapsing down onto a large wooden bench outside the front gate to the guest house. “Besides, we’re here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho weakly motioned to the sign above the gate. Felix gently dismounted his broom and slung it over his shoulder once more as Minho splayed himself on the bench, chest heaving as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his shirt sleeve. Looking up at the unassuming small two-storey dwelling a chill ran through Felix’s body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm that was weird.” He muttered under his breath to himself but otherwise just shook off the feeling as he began to look at the surrounding neighbourhood, taking note of the small convenience store a couple houses down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just give me a minute and then I’ll show you inside.” Minho wheezed as he desperately tried to catch his breath once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After fifteen or so minutes had elapsed, Minho finally rolled off the bench and went to pick up Felix’s bag once more, his arm muscles already screaming in agony. Felix followed him through the front gate and across the miniscule yard to the large front door of the house. Minho fumbled looking for his keys for a minute before ushering Felix inside. Felix hadn’t even taken a step past the threshold when a skinny black cat went skittering away in front of him, immediately disappearing down the dark hall until only the glint from its eyes were still visible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the inside of the house was nothing spectacular to the normal person, to Felix it was the biggest house he had ever been in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow, this is all yours?” He asked in amazement, putting his broom down by the front door as Minho dragged his bag into the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie was quick to hop off Felix’s shoulder and make himself comfortable on one of the small couches, burying himself between the cushions while letting out a couple small grunts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You said you were fine with cats, right?” Minho asked again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah, cats are fine!” Felix happily replied. “I’m sure Alfie won’t mind as well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good because I have three. Soonie was the cat you saw when we first opened the door.” Minho explained. “He’s a bit skittish and overdramatic but you’ll get used to him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho walked over to the living room window where another black cat with slightly longer fur was happily dozing in the warm sunlight, giving a big stretch as he noticed Minho approach. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then this is Doongie, the goodest boy. Yes you are.” Minho said in a baby-like tone as he gave the cat a couple scratches under its chin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And then there’s Dori.” Minho paused briefly, looking around for the third cat that was nowhere to be seen. “Oh yeah, that’s right. You probably won’t meet him til I decide to bring him back. Forgot about that. So just the two cats for now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gave an absentminded nod as he was still taking in his surroundings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways, let me show you to your room.” Minho replied. “It’ll be 150,000 won a month and you’ll be expected to help around the house when needed but I guarantee you won’t find a room for that rate anywhere this side of the Han River.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho quickly made for the stairs and Felix followed close behind. However once he reached the top, Minho stopped dead in his tracks, looking between the four rooms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Actually, to be honest…” Minho began to say. “You’re basically the only boarder we have right now so you can basically pick any room you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix carefully looked over each bedroom and ended up choosing the one closest to the stairs as it was the biggest and had a large window on one side with a lovely view of the neighbourhood below. Minho was quick to bring Felix’s stuff before bringing Felix back downstairs to sign the paperwork and have a quick dinner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So the place to your liking then?” Minho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, seems great!” Felix replied as he looked over the terms of the contract in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So like no weird feelings or anything out of place?” Minho continued in a more cautious tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope, not that I can think of.” Felix replied once more in a distracted tone, giving a small pout as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho seemed ultimately relieved at Felix’s response and after he had signed the boarding paperwork and paid the deposit upfront in cash Minho called up a nearby restaurant and treated him to the customary moving-in meal of jjajangmyun. Both of them must have been more hungry than either had realized as they downed the entire meal without a single word, the only sound being a small forlorn meow from Soonie who was still hiding down at the end of the hall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time they were finished, the sun was already low on the horizon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I hope you don’t mind me asking but like, what are you?” Minho asked, attempting to make small talk as he was leaving the delivery dishes at the front door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, what do you mean?” Felix stuttered out, thrown off by Minho’s question as he wiped down the table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean like, what’s your deal?” Minho replied, gesturing up and down at Felix as he walked back into the kitchen. “You have to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be enrolled at the specialty college.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh!” Felix blurted out. “Yeah, I’m a witch!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah cool me too!” Minho said, giving a playful swat at Felix’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I’m part fae as well.” Felix continued, his voice having become much smaller.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahh I guess that would explain the silver hair and sparkly aura about you.” Minho laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it really that noticeable?” Flex muttered, pulling a longer strand of his hair in front of his face. “I’ve been trying my best to blend in but I haven’t really spent much time around humans so I’m not really sure what’s normal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah, it suits you. Little eccentric but nothing too weird.” Minho replied. “You have a whole Brave New World vibe about you. I dig it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, I think?” Felix said with a laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways, I’ll leave you to settle in.” Minho said. “Washrooms and my bedroom are on the ground floor at the end of the hall so if you need anything, just let me know and we can go over the rest of the house rules and stuff tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright cool, thanks!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Minho disappeared down the hall, Felix went to retrieve Alfie from the couch only to find Doongie curled up beside him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright buddy, time to head upstairs.” Felix laughed as he slowly lifted the possum up off the couch, cradling him like a baby in his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gave Doongie a small pat on the head before heading upstairs to his bedroom to finish unpacking. After constructing a small makeshift bed for Alfie, Felix reluctantly pulled out his phone, noticing the 238 outstanding notifications. Giving a small sigh he sat down on his bed and began scrolling through them. However he could feel his eyes getting heavier and heavier the longer he scrolled. Putting his phone down, he had only planned to take a short nap but the moment he laid back and his body hit the mattress it was lights out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sun had long since risen when Felix’s stomach let out a loud rumble and he reluctantly dragged himself out of bed. It took him a minute to get his bearings as he was not used to this change of scenery and he tiredly rubbed his face with a long groan. He slowly shuffled over to the makeshift bed he had set up for Alfie in a tangerine crate and gave him a small pat on the head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You stay here, I’m going to go find something to eat okay?” Felix mumbled, pushing his shaggy bed-head hair out of his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie merely gave a low grumble in response and buried himself back under the blankets stuffed in the crate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Letting out a somewhat exaggerated yawn, Felix headed out of the room in the same clothes he had been wearing the day before. He shuffled downstairs and slowly made his way to the shared kitchen. The house seemed eerily quiet as he passed through the living room. He saw Doongie perched on the arm of the couch. Giving him a quick scratch under the chin as he passed by, the cat replied with a happy little trill.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he entered the kitchen he was quickly thrown off by a young man with long blond hair sitting cross-legged not </span>
  <em>
    <span>at</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>on top of</span>
  </em>
  <span> the kitchen table aggressively fiddling with a Nintendo Switch. Felix found this person’s behaviour a little odd but then again he hadn’t been around humans for all that long and found everything they did odd so he merely dismissed it as having to be something normal for people to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, sorry.” Felix grumbled out. “Are you one of the other boarders here? I thought Minho had said the place was empty but I might have misheard him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The person merely lifted their eyes to meet Felix’s for a brief moment before going back to his game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not one for talking, got it.” Felix muttered as he made his way over to the fridge that was absolutely covered in take out and delivery flyers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However as soon as Felix laid a hand on the door to the fridge the young man’s head shot up and his attention became entirely focused on what Felix was doing. As Felix went to open the door the young man moved so fast it almost seemed like he had teleported and before Felix knew it, the young man was sitting perched on top of the fridge, glaring down at him. Felix was quickly becoming more and more unsettled by this strange individual and took a nervous gulp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you getting something to eat?” The man asked in a somewhat desperate sounding tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, yeah? Minho said to just help myself.” Felix replied as he cautiously opened the fridge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mind grabbing me something too?” The man asked, his eyes wide in excitement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Felix could even answer there was the frantic sound of heavy footsteps from down the hall as Minho appeared in the doorway to the kitchen looking completely disheveled, eyes burning wild, and chest heaving from the sprint.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin!” He yelled. “You have your own food! Stop trying to steal from the fridge!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man quickly cowered away, pressing himself against the back wall atop the fridge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off Minho!” He spat back in an unsure tone. “I don’t like the brown triangles. I want</span>
  <em>
    <span> real</span>
  </em>
  <span> food! I want an Americano!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> an Americano!” Minho shouted back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix stood there, utterly perplexed by the heated conversation that was going on around him, eyes nervously flitting between Minho and the person who he assumed must be Hyunjin still sitting atop the fridge while hurling expletives back at Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And how many times have I told you not to climb on the appliances like that!” Minho continued, reaching for a small spray bottle on the nearby counter. “Don’t make me use this!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Try me.” Hyunjin replied in a snotty tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a flash Hyunjin had reached into the open fridge, grabbed a package of pork belly and had flung himself off the appliance, making a mad dash for the living room as soon as his bare feet hit the floor. Time seemed to slow as Felix tried to process what was happening. Minho launched himself after Hyunjin and within three steps had managed to tackle him to the floor, aggressively pinning him onto his back while sitting square on his chest as half the pork belly slid across the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh! Get off me!” Hyunjin cried as Minho ripped the package with the remaining pork belly out of his hands, tossing it back on top of the counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve been a </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad boy.” Minho growled, aiming the spray bottle directly at Hyunjin’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A single drop of water fell from the nozzle and landed on Hyunjin’s cheek creating a light sizzling sound upon contact. It was only then that Felix noticed Hyunjin’s eyes had turned a bright red colour and he even appeared to have fangs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that holy water?!” Hyunjin huffed in an offended tone. “Do it. You wouldn’t dare.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Hyunjin could get out another word, Minho had shoved the nozzle directly between his teeth and had pulled the trigger, blasting a spray of holy water straight down Hyunjin’s throat. Hyunjin let out a wail in agony and immediately began to thrash wildly, eventually managing to buck Minho off of him. He continued coughing and sputtering as he crawled away from Minho, making his hasty retreat. When he reached the far wall of the living he leaned up against it, clutching his throat while making pained wheezing sounds, his eyes burning red with rage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck Minho! I can’t believe you actually did that!” He rasped out. “I could have </span>
  <em>
    <span>died!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was only 5% holy water, suck it up you baby.” Minho scoffed, getting back to his feet and replacing the bottle on the counter before going to pick up the scrap pork belly off the floor. “Besides, if you had died I would have just brought you back anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re the worst!” Hyunjin hissed as he curled up into a ball in the corner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was still standing in front of the open fridge, cold air leaking out around him with his mouth slightly agape from not knowing exactly what he had just witnessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, Minho?” Felix stuttered out. “What was… what just—who was that?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh him?” Minho replied nonchalantly, wiping down the floor where the meat had left a greasy trail. “Don’t mind Hyunjin, he just likes to cause problems on purpose.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is he a, uh, boarder here?” Felix continued, the nervousness in his voice becoming quite apparent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, no, no!” Minho laughed. “He’s one of my cat familiars, Soonie to be exact. You met him yesterday, remember? He just doesn’t like </span>
  <em>
    <span>staying</span>
  </em>
  <span> in his cat form.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho shot Hyunjin a warning glare in the living room as Hyunjin snottily stuck his tongue out in response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait so is he a cat… or is he a human…?” Felix asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Technically he’s a demon. As what is common with most familiars.” Minho replied casually as he gently moved Felix aside to replace the stolen meat and finally close the fridge door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been a cat for a hundred years. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m bored</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hyunjin whined loudly from the other room. “Why would I want to keep being a cat when being a human is more fun?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways, don’t pay attention to him when he’s like this. Also don’t let him into the fridge or he’ll clear out the entire thing and leave us starving.” Minho continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a low, angry growl from his place on the floor as Minho pointed to a talisman that warded off demons affixed to the door of the fridge, buried under the dozens of take out flyers. Felix couldn’t believe what he was seeing, couldn’t believe that this cat was actually a human, or a demon, or both, but did that mean the other cat was the same? Minho had said there was a third cat who was missing, were they also a demon? He had said they were gone but that he would bring them back… but he also said he would bring back Soonie—Hyunjin back if he had been killed by that holy water stunt minutes earlier. Felix quickly began to connect the dots as a look of horror washed across his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Random question b-but…” Felix asked, taking a nervous gulp as he did so, “and this might seem a little weird but, uh, what exactly did you mean by ‘bring him back’ earlier? A-are you a healer?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh it must have slipped my mind. I guess you could call me a really late healer? But my specialty is actually necromancy.” Minho replied casually with a bit of a laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s mind immediately went into overdrive. Necromancy. Magic that involves communication with the dead. Black magic. Black magic that allows the user to raise the dead should they wish.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another chill ran through Felix’s body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly everything about why the guest house couldn’t attract guests now seemed to make perfect sense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So. How about I cook us up some breakfast. How was your sleep last night?” Minho said cheerfully as he began rummaging through the kitchen cupboards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine!” Felix squeaked out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s good to hear. You’re actually the first person to make it through the night.” Minho laughed. “I’m really glad you’re sticking around.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ha ha ha yeah.” Felix replied in a fake tone as beads of sweat began forming across his brow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had no idea what he had just gotten himself into but it would be rude to just leave… wouldn’t it?</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Minho had started up the rice cooker and began frying up a couple of eggs without hesitation but the smell of the food alone had suddenly caused Felix’s stomach to tie itself in knots as his mind hyper-fixated on the fact that a necromancer was currently cooking breakfast mere feet in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, um, I don’t think I’m feeling all too good right now.” Felix struggled out, a nervous lump having formed in his throat as he sat on one of the kitchen chairs, arms wrapped tightly around his stomach. “I</span>
  <span>—I think I—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Felix could finish his thought, Minho had spun around and was gently placing the back of his hand against Felix’s forehead before checking the temperature against his own cheek, his eyes quickly darting over every inch of Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn, you’re clammy as fuck and come to mention it your colour is looking a little off as well.” Minho muttered in a mildly concerned tone. “Want me to make you some ginger tea or something instead? Is it a stomach thing? What can I do to help?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix quickly got up from the chair, stumbling slightly as he took a step back, pulling away from Minho’s hand which had made its way down to his cheek and then the side of his neck. Felix couldn’t even bring himself to make eye contact and kept his head hung low. Minho’s eyebrows knit together ever so slightly at Felix’s sudden odd reaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix? What’s wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I</span>
  <span>—I think it’s just the jet lag. I probably just need to sleep it off.” Felix lied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure?” Minho replied, his tone becoming increasingly worried as the eggs behind him had started to burn, the smell making Felix even more nauseous.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, it’s nothing. I just—thanks for offering to make breakfast but I think I’m just going to head back to my room for a bit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay well if you need anything…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix</span>
  <span> quickly waved Minho away and excused himself from the kitchen as Minho’s last few words trailed off. He was nearly sprinting as soon as he was out of view from Minho and Hyunjin. When he had reached the stairs he took them two at a time, anything to put as much space between him and his housemates as he could. He burst back into his bedroom in a flurry, startling Alfie in his tiny crate and he quickly closed and locked the door behind him. Flopping face down onto his bed, he frantically pulled all his pillows towards him as he screamed into the mattress. Every time Felix began to go over the reality of just what exactly he had signed up for all he wanted to do was to run away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Living with a necromancer next door? Was he crazy?! How did he not realize the moment he stepped foot in the guest house?! </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His heart was now racing just as fast as his mind was as his nausea increased ten-fold and tightness spread across his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Was this a panic attack? Was he dying?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only then that he felt something jump onto the bed beside him and it wasn’t long before he felt Alfie’s nose gently nuzzling against his ear. Felix slowly raised his head to look at the small concerned creature beside him. Felix’s breathing was erratic as he shakily reached out and gave Alfie a small pat on the head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What have I done, Alfie?” Felix cried as he slowly sat up, tears streaming down his face as his entire body revolted against him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In an instant Felix had scooped up Alfie in his arms, gently cradling him as he swayed back and forth, burying his face in the possum’s soft fur in an attempt to help calm himself down. Alfie let out a couple small noises and ever so slowly Felix began to feel his heart rate slow as his breathing started to become more normal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I signed a legally binding document to live here. Am I even allowed to break that contract?” Felix muttered to Alfie despite knowing a possum was not a substitute for any sort of legal counsel. “How do human contracts even work? I don’t want to go to jail over this!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s eyes went wild once more as his mind began to hyper-fixate again. “I’m too young to go to jail!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie let out a series of disgruntled squeaks, nipping at Felix’s arm, pulling his attention away from his own thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re right, I’m getting way too worked up about this.” Felix sighed. “I just need to think through things. I just need to think clearly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took close to an hour for Felix to come back to his senses and begin to rationalize his options.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re a fae witch, Felix!” He muttered to himself. “You’ve got powers regular witches couldn’t even dream of! Stop being a scaredy cat! You’ve got this! One small necromancer is no match for you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie let out a small grunt as he jumped out of Felix’s arms, leaping off the bed and skittering across the floor towards the bedroom door, pawing gently at it as he looked between the door and Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, I know.” Felix sighed, wiping the half-dried tears from his eyes. “I need to tackle this head-on. I can’t just hide in here. I have to make this work. I</span>
  <em>
    <span> will</span>
  </em>
  <span> make this work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix let out a small frustrated cry and flopped onto his back, pulling his comforter over himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But not right now.” Felix mumbled from beneath the blankets. “This is all too overwhelming. I need to nap for about thirty years first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the time being Felix had convinced himself to stay at the guest house. He really had nowhere else to go and definitely couldn’t afford the majority of the other boarding houses in the city but he couldn’t help but feel slightly on edge around Minho. Necromancers had always had a stigma against them because they dabbled with very ethically ambiguous magic that many did not approve of but at the same time Minho </span>
  <em>
    <span>seemed</span>
  </em>
  <span> like a nice enough person… at least around Felix. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His attitude towards Hyunjin was a completely different story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin himself was also turning out to be quite the interesting individual and Felix much preferred when he was in his cat form Soonie. He had never dealt with anyone who had a familiar that could take on a human form before. But then again he had never dealt with anyone else who even </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> a familiar before as he had grown up in a fae community and his father, the only other witch, hadn’t taken on a familiar. But it definitely got him curious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While casually avoiding his housemates whenever he could, Felix had been conducting quite a lot of research. After an extensive series of internet searches Felix crouched down in front of Alfie, carefully looking him over in between scanning the article he had open on his phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t shapeshift, can you?” Felix nervously asked the possum.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie merely made a small grunt and buried himself back under his bedding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t think so.” Felix said with a bit of a sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was relieved but couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at the same time. Apparently unlike forest witches, the witches here </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> had animal familiars, the majority of them being cats, and they were all various types of demons that could take on alternate forms as desired by their masters. As far as he knew Alfie wasn’t a demon… as far as he knew he was just a possum. Was he supposed to be a demon? Felix found the whole thing rather confusing and made him start to doubt his own magic abilities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a thorough examination of Alfie to confirm that he was in fact not a demon, Felix’s stomach let out a large rumble and he knew he would have to venture out into the house for food whether he wanted to actually leave his room or not. Carefully peering into the hallway, he checked to make sure the coast was clear before heading out and trying his best to silently creep down the stairs to the kitchen. He had barely made it a couple steps into the living room when he heard a happy meow come from the couch behind him. He involuntarily gave a bit of a jump and whipped his head around to face the sound, praying it wasn’t Soonie and that he wouldn’t suddenly have to deal with Hyunjin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh when he saw it was Doongie just chilling on the couch instead. However, his curiosity got the better of him and he made a detour over to the cat, bending down in front of him and giving him a gentle pet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is going to sound absolutely crazy especially because I’m talking to a cat but…” Felix started to say, inhaling deeply. “But you’re not a human… er, I mean a demon… as well? Are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Doongie let out a happy meow while rolling onto his side and Felix began to laugh, thinking it foolish for him to be asking a regular cat if it was a demon. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind that there was a small poof and suddenly in place of Doongie sat a young man instead. Felix immediately stumbled backwards onto the floor, having been completely taken by surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sup?” The person replied with a bright smile. “Name’s Jisung.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, there’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>two</span>
  </em>
  <span> of you?!” Felix huffed in disbelief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please.” Jisung laughed, bending over and extending a hand to help pull Felix up off the floor. “Hyunjin might be older than me but I’m nothing like that weirdo.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, well, I guess that’s good?” Felix muttered as he slowly got back to his feet, dusting himself off as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, he might be a little</span>
  <span>—a lot</span>
  <span> overdramatic but you’ll get used to him eventually.” Jisung continued in a carefree tone as he casually leaned back against the couch cushions. “Can’t say that I didn’t fight with him every other day after Minho first brought him home three years ago but… I don’t know, he’s been through a lot. He’s still getting used to being a ‘normal’ familiar. Besides, there’s actually three of us, but that’s future-you’s problem.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, what?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix had no idea what Jisung meant by all of that but before he could ask any questions Jisung had reverted back to his cat form as if nothing at all had just occurred. He lazily jumped down from the couch, winding in between Felix’s legs as his tail happily flicked behind him. Felix reached down and gave him a quick scratch under the chin, pretending that this cat hadn’t just been a human 15 seconds earlier, before attempting to escape to the kitchen once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As soon as he rounded the corner though, Felix’s heart skipped a beat as he immediately came face to face with Minho who was standing beside the fridge casually eating a bowl of cereal. It took every ounce of self-restraint for Felix to not lose his cool.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh cool, just the person I was hoping to run into!” Minho said with a mouth full of cereal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, h-hey Minho.” Felix stuttered out, immediately heading towards the furthest cupboards away from him to look for something to eat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You feeling better?” Minho asked. “I feel like I haven’t really seen you the past couple of days.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh yeah. I am. Thanks. And I’ve been busy. With, uh, school stuff.” Felix blurted out in response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s good. Anyways, so I was thinking.” Minho began, mouth still of food while casually twirling his spoon around as he talked. “Since this place apparently gives off a dark and foreboding feeling and since you have such a bright and sparkly aura about you, maybe you could help me spruce it up a little.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To be completely honest…” Felix slowly began to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” Minho replied with a raised eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s heart had begun pounding in his chest as his conscience screamed at him not to say another. He gave a nervous gulp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The dark feeling I’m pretty sure... is coming from </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>… and not the house.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho immediately burst out laughing, spraying little bits of cereal everywhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re funny!” Minho laughed as he gave Felix’s arm a playful punch. “But no, seriously, I think maybe we could add some like… decorations or something. Maybe make it look a bit more lived-in and homey. What d’you say?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix wasn’t sure if Minho was completely oblivious or just in complete denial about his own aura but either way Felix felt that had to help around the guest house as part of his tenant contract so it’s not like he could really turn him down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, alright, I guess?” Felix replied in an unsure tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool as soon as you’ve had something to eat we’ll head out to the department store.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix just gave a small nod as his conscience continued to scream at him that this was a terrible idea. It took him four times as long as normal for him to finish his breakfast as tried to find any way to postpone having to be alone with Minho for any extended period of time but eventually he knew that his attempts would be futile and that he was just going to have to suck it up and go with him. He finished eating and reluctantly washed up before going to find Minho in the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, I’m good to go.” Felix said quietly as he approached Minho who was sitting on the couch reading. Hyunjin had also materialized and was leaning up against him, completely engrossed in a switch game. “Are we gonna fly there or what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah we’ll just take public transit.” Minho said casually as he got up, letting Hyunjin flop back onto the couch with a disgruntled ‘oof.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wouldn’t taking brooms be faster?” Felix asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah but I’m not really a fan of heights.” Minho replied. “It’s only a few stops away anyways. It’ll be fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was a little thrown off at a witch being scared of flying or heights but he tucked that piece of knowledge away just in case he should ever need to use it to make some sort of grand escape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin if you’re gonna stay in that form all day you could at least make yourself useful.” Minho commented as he looked back at him still laying on the couch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin barely lifted his eyes from his game but gave a bit of a scowl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could you wash the dishes while we’re out?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Washing dishes is the thing I hate most in the world.” Hyunjin grumbled as he dramatically splayed across the couch, dropping the switch at his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I need to remind you of your contract as a familiar?” Minho asserted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“UghhhhhHHH Minho you’re the worst!” Hyunjin groaned as he reluctantly dragged himself up off the couch and began messily tying back his long hair. “Why don’t you ever make Jisung do any of the chores? It’s not fair!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because </span>
  <em>
    <span>Doongie</span>
  </em>
  <span> is a good boy who enjoys staying as a cat instead of eating two week’s worth of </span>
  <em>
    <span>his master’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> food in under an hour. Or should I remind you of the incident from last month?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Hyunjin muttered under his breath as he begrudgingly made his way to the kitchen and began taking off the half-dozen rings he wore on his fingers and made a grab for the rubber dish-washing gloves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a good boy.” Minho said in a baby-like tone as he went over and gave Hyunjin a pat on the head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off.” Hyunjin growled as he aimed the sink’s spray nozzle at Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just let out a laugh and headed back to the front door to put on his shoes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me and ‘Lix will be back in a little while. Don’t cause too much trouble while we’re gone, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever!” Hyunjin yelled over the sound of the faucet filling up the sink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the next two hours Felix joined Minho at the home goods store picking up whatever Minho felt would ‘lighten the place up a bit.’ He occasionally provided some input but mostly let Minho get whatever he felt like. At first Felix felt a little uneasy but after a little while it was almost like he completely forgot that Minho was a necromancer and that he was more of just… a friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time they got home later that evening Felix was actually feeling quite comfortable around Minho as they joked and talked walking back to the house, arms filled with large bags full of various décor items. Felix had even picked out a couple items himself for not only his room but the common living spaces as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix had begun unpacking some of the items in the living room while Minho took a couple bags of stuff he had bought for himself back to his room. Since the majority of the kitchen had been hidden behind demon-proof talismans, Felix had thought it would be nice to maybe have a bowl of decorative plastic fruit for the kitchen table. It wasn’t much but it at least made the kitchen look less barren despite the piles of plates on the counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He carefully arranged the plastic fruit in a glass bowl, taking a step back to admire his work once finished.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s that?” Hyunjin’s voice called out from directly behind him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix unintentionally flinched as he hadn’t even heard him approach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some fruit. To make the kitchen look nicer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks delicious!” Hyunjin said as he went to reach for a piece.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix quickly swatted his hand away. “It’s not for eating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Not for eating</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Hyunjin huffed. “Aren’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> brave putting it out in the open like that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Without hesitation Hyunjin had shoved past Felix and plunged his hand into the fruit bowl, pulling out a large apple. He gave it a quick shine on his shirt before taking a large bite. No sooner had he done so that his face contorted and he began making exaggerated choking sounds, spitting the piece of foam and plastic back out onto his hand while looking up at Felix with an expression of utter betrayal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell is this?!” Hyunjin cried, brandishing the two pieces of ‘apple’ at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s plastic. I told you it’s not for eating!” Felix replied, mildly horrified by Hyunjin’s impulsive actions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you were just saying it was not meant to be eaten </span>
  <em>
    <span>by me</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Why the hell would you buy food that is not meant to be eaten!?” Hyunjin continued, his tone getting more desperate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s decorative!” Felix retorted. “It’s just meant to look nice!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho!” Hyunjin cried out. “Minho the strange fae boy is trying to poison me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? No I’m not</span>
  <span> I literally warned you! And I have a name!” Felix was not one to lose his temper but Hyunjin was really starting to test him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho! The strange fae boy who goes by the name Felix is trying to poison me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good! You probably deserved it!” Minho called back from across the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin looked down the hall towards the direction of Minho’s voice with an exaggerated pout before turning back to Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright. You win this round, fae boy.” Hyunjin scoffed in a snotty tone as he handed the mangled pieces of plastic fruit back to Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? This isn’t some sort of vendetta—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve got my eyes on you.” Hyunjin replied, motioning between his eyes and Felix before shifting back into his cat form and disappearing down the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know if I’ve ever going to actually get used to this.” Felix sighed to himself in defeat as he tried to position the apple back in the bowl so that the giant bite mark wasn’t visible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he was determined to make it work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somehow.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Despite how unconventional his current living situation was, Felix was actually starting to become more accustomed to the daily shenanigans that occurred around the guest house, mostly involving Minho and Hyunjin. Doongie mostly just lay around the house in his cat form, occasionally snuggling with Alfie in Felix’s room and often stayed out of things. He was the least of Felix’s concerns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been sort of a relief that Felix had yet to see Minho do anything strange or menacing with his necromancer abilities so he was actually starting to feel just a little bit safer. Come to think of it, Felix hadn’t seen Minho use </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> magic since arriving at the guest house which actually made him a little suspicious for other reasons. Maybe that meant Minho barely even had any powers and wasn’t as dangerous as he thought? Minho seemed like a really nice guy... maybe not all necromancers were the monsters the rest of the magic community made them out to be? Or maybe Felix was just overanalyzing things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin on the other hand was still a much different story and Felix was still desperately trying to figure him out. He had never dealt with putting up with a demon before but he had to admit that he may have been softening up just a little towards him and his outrageous antics as well. Whenever it was Felix’s turn to cook, more often than not Hyunjin would join him in the kitchen, happily perched on one of the kitchen chairs, intently watching him as he worked. He would even sometimes help chop or stir something if Felix offered to give him some of whatever he was cooking later on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For some reason Felix often struggled with getting the gas flames on the stove to light but Hyunjin would always step in to fix things. As soon as he even made contact with the knobs, massive flames would burst forth and he would just look over at Felix with a smug grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you Hyunjin.” Felix would always say in a slightly sing-song tone as Hyunjin returned to his chair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Was Hyunjin’s only response as he just rolled his eyes, running his fingers through his long hair as he cracked a small smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The days had started to get colder and this particular day had started like any other. Felix had been on campus attending his classes when he received a rather strange text from Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hey, when you get home this afternoon whatever he might say, DO NOT let Hyunjin out. Okay?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix thought it was rather vague but simply responded with a “k” as he headed to his last class of the day. When it was time to head home he made a quick pit stop at the grocery store just off campus to stock up on some ingredients to cook army stew that night then he slung the bags over the handle of his broom and kicked off. Walking would have taken him fifteen to twenty minutes to get home but he found when he flew and avoided the hundreds of steps up the steep, winding roads he could make it back in close to five minutes, often allowing him a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning if he decided to fly to class. Flying over the front gate he dodged the low-hanging branches of the old gingko trees in the small yard and gently touched down on the small patch of grass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m home! And I brought the ingredients for stew tonight!” Felix called out as he stepped inside the door, kicking off his shoes and hanging up his broom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix?!” Hyunjin’s voice called in a slightly frantic tone from the other room. “Felix is that you?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah… it’s me.” Felix replied in a dry tone as he took his groceries into the kitchen and began sorting through the fridge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he worked to put away the food his nose gave a slight twitch. Something smelled… off. He couldn’t quite pinpoint the source of the smell but something almost smelled burnt and he wondered if maybe Minho had burnt something on the stove earlier in the day. The burners looked clean enough though. It was definitely strange.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix help me!” Hyunjin cried out again in a pitiful tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> need help?” Felix responded, having become much more accustomed to Hyunjin’s dramatics by now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! Please! I’m in the living room!” Hyunjin continued to plead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix let out a small sigh, abandoning the food and made his way towards the living room. As soon as he rounded the corner he stopped dead in his tracks as he couldn’t believe his eyes. There, sitting at the far end of the room was Hyunjin cramped up inside a large metal pet crate. Felix’s mind ground to a halt and he couldn’t even begin to process what he was looking at. Was this what Minho had meant when he said not to let him out? Why was he in there in the first place?!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why</span>
  <span>—” Felix began to say as he started to approach but then his eyes caught something much more sinister to his left.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The large couch that had once been the main focal point of the living room sat there, blackened and charred on one half to the point where it looked like it would completely disintegrate if touched. At least now Felix knew where the burning smell had come from but how did </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> happen!?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, why are you in a cage?” Felix asked, not being able to take his eyes off the couch. “And what happened to the couch?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me and Jisung got into a fight.” Hyunjin muttered. “But that isn’t important right now! Minho locked me in here as punishment. Lemme out!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He told me explicitly not to.” Felix responded, having now placed himself directly in front of the cage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you’re just gonna listen to him?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hyunjin immediately looked away in an agitated manner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not just let yourself out? These things are meant to keep animals trapped not humans… or uh, demons. You literally could just lift the latch and be free.” Felix asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin rolled his eyes and begrudgingly pointed at a paper talisman affixed to the top of the crate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahhh.” Felix said as he noticed the demon warding symbols on it, similar to those protecting the fridge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At that moment the sound of the front door opening could be heard as Minho returned home carrying a large box of items in his arms. When he noticed Felix’s shoes at the front step he immediately made his way to the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh good, you didn’t let him out.” Minho sighed in relief as he saw Felix crouched in front of the cage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho I demand you let me out of here!” Hyunjin yelled as he aggressively rattled the bars of the </span>
  <span>large metal crate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you learned your lesson yet?” Minho replied in a dry tone, putting the box down on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I already told you! Jisung started it!” Hyunjin cried out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Evidently not. You will stay in there until you learn that hell fire is NOT permitted inside the house!” Minho said sternly. “Be glad I put you in </span>
  <em>
    <span>there</span>
  </em>
  <span> and not the air fryer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a low, disgruntled hiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just then Jisung entered the room carrying a much larger box, having been following Minho from a little ways behind. When he saw Hyunjin in the cage he let out a small laugh, sticking out his tongue mockingly as he approached. This only further riled Hyunjin up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“LEMME OUT!” Hyunjin yelled, angrier than before. His eyes were burning, turning a bright red colour in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can stay in there for another hour by my watch.” Minho snapped back. “If you weren’t so stubborn and just switched back to your cat form, you wouldn’t be so cramped and uncomfortable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Hyunjin muttered as he pulled his knees up to his chest, hugging them tightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, uh, don’t mean to interrupt.” Jisung said quietly as he put down the box he was carrying beside Minho’s. “But since Felix is home do you need me for anything else right now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah, you’re free to go.” Minho said in a preoccupied tone as he continued to glare at Hyunjin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice!” Jisung responded with a small fist pump as he quickly reverted back into his feline form and darted off down the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho, can I see you in the kitchen for a second?” Felix asked in a concerned tone as he got back up to his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho didn’t even have the chance to respond as Felix had grabbed the front of his shirt and already pulled him out of the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho what the hell happened?!” Felix pressed in a harsh whisper. “Why is he in a cage?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s in timeout. Soonie and Doogie got into a bit of a scuffle this morning which later evolved into Hyunjin and Jisung getting into a fight and then Hyunjin ended up losing control of his hell fire and the couch unfortunately got torched.” Minho explained all too casually. “So he’s in timeout. Which would be completely normal if he would just stay as a cat for once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin can use hell fire?!” Felix sputtered out. “Isn’t that… not normal? Isn’t that a fire hazard?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah it </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> kind of weird. Most demon familiars can’t do that but Hyunjin’s never exactly been normal.” Minho said as he put his hands on his hips, leaning back a bit to get a look at Hyunjin sulking in the pet crate. “But don’t worry about the fire hazard bit. I had Jisung help me pick up a bunch of fire extinguishers and some smoke detectors that I’ll install later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix didn’t feel completely safe with Minho’s answer but at least he was making some sort of effort.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> gonna need your help though…” Minho began to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gulped nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna need your help picking out a new couch. We can’t just leave that old thing smoldering in the living room.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix felt slightly relieved that was all he was asking for and that it wasn’t something more stressful like having to confront Hyunjin about his odd abilities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin can join us as part of his punishment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The feeling of relief immediately disappeared with Minho’s last statement but Felix begrudgingly agreed. He knew he had to just suck it up and get used to this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An hour or so later after Minho and Felix had eaten and Felix had snuck a small bowl of stew to Hyunjin, Hyunjin was finally released from timeout and they got ready to head out to the home goods store. Of course this was only after Hyunjin struggled to remove all the burn remnants of the couch out of the living room first, placing them outside the gate for trash pickup.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite it still being rather early in the evening it was already dark out and the weather had already become quite cold by the time they were finally ready to go. Felix bundled up in as many layers as he could as he was not used to this sort of cold but found it remarkable that Hyunjin had decided on only wearing a leather jacket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Won’t you be cold?” Felix asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be fine.” Hyunjin grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix refused to accept Hyunjin’s answer and immediately looped one of his heavy knit scarves around Hyunjin’s neck, tightly tying it in the front. Hyunjin tilted his head slightly and just watched Felix work with a slightly perplexed expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There. That’s better.” Felix said, giving the knot of the scarf a timid pat before heading to join Minho who was already anxiously waiting for them outside the gate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they made the trek to the subway Hyunjin angrily muttered to himself the entire time as he trudged along behind them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can’t believe he locked me in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>cage</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He muttered under his breath but just loud enough that Felix and Minho could still hear him. “Who does he think he is treating me like that? Sure I might be a familiar </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span> but a hundred years ago humans used to call me a </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He locked a </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span> in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>cage</span>
  </em>
  <span>. A </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“More like a pain in the ass.” Minho retorted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh Minho?” Felix asked, quickening his pace slightly to catch up to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What exactly is Hyunjin talking about? About being a god?” Felix seemed mildly concerned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not really sure.” Minho replied with a shrug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean you’re not really sure? How can you not be sure about something like that?! He’s your familiar!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it’s sort of complicated.” Minho sighed. “I mean, the story of how he became my familiar is complicated enough but before all that we think Hyunjin might have actually been a lesser god at some point. It would explain the hell fire at least. He could be thousands of years old for all we know but we think his shrine somehow vanished and he was essentially demoted to become a demon familiar after that. His memories are rather fragmented so we can’t really be sure but his ego definitely seems to like that theory best.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, you can't be serious...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho let out a small huff of laughter as he looked back at Hyunjin who was still muttering to himself, hands buried deep in the pockets of his leather jacket and absentmindedly kicking at a rock as he walked. Felix looked back at him as well. Hyunjin definitely didn’t look like any sort of god. He looked like any ordinary human, minus the platinum blond hair and rather eccentric way he liked to dress himself. Felix couldn’t be entirely sure if Minho was actually being serious or if he was joking but it definitely would explain several of Hyunjin’s peculiarities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They continued on for the next few blocks in silence until Hyunjin finally piped up again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’d be so much faster if we flew.” Hyunjin muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s what I say!” Felix unintentionally scoffed in reply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin and Felix momentarily exchanged a surprised glance before heading down into the crowded subway station. As they approached the fare gates Hyunjin quickly shifted into his feline form, easily ducking under the turnstiles before quickly shifting back on the other side, avoiding having to pay the small fee. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If only we could all get away with that.” Felix sighed as he reluctantly tapped his t-money card, noticing the low amount left on it as he too passed through the turnstile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When they eventually reached the home goods store they spent a solid couple of hours roaming the furniture section, desperately trying to find any new couch that would fit their meager budget.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they were heading down the aisles to the clearance section, Hyunjin seemed mostly uninterested, shoulders hunched as he kept his hands tucked deep in his pockets. However as they were passing by a couple of other shoppers Hyunjin suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing Felix to bump into his back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it? Something wrong?” Felix asked as he noticed Hyunjin’s expression had become much more serious as he looked back over his shoulder at the two who had just passed by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm… no, it’s nothing.” Hyunjin said in a low voice. “Just not often I come across another familiar who has taken on a human form out in public. Especially not one nearly as old as me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix glanced back to where Hyunjin was looking and noticed the two other store patrons who had passed them just previously. The two young men were heatedly bickering over a display of household items not too far down the aisle. One of them with slightly longer messy black hair momentarily paused his arguing and turned to look back at Hyunjin as if he could feel them staring. His eyes flickered red for a brief moment before he went right back to his argument as Felix quickly looked away in a mild panic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin, Felix!” Minho called from further down the aisle. “What are you doing? Come on!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go.” Hyunjin said in a low tone, taking hold of Felix’s wrist and pulling him down the aisle to where Minho was waiting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After another hour of searching they eventually settled on a small couch in the clearance section. It wasn’t much but it would have to do as it was all they could afford. Minho was able to haggle them down to throwing in free delivery as well and seemed quite pleased with himself as they started on the long journey back home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Much to their surprise the new couch was already waiting for them at their front gate by the time they got home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn they’re fast.” Minho commented in mild disbelief. “Did they teleport here or something? Should have just asked for a ride with them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho walked up and looked over the couch to find the best method to pick it up. “Come on Hyunjin, help me get this inside.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin rolled his eyes but didn’t otherwise protest in helping. Felix was quick to open the gate for them as the other two struggled to first get the couch through the gate and then through the narrow front door and into the living room. When it was finally in place where the old couch had once been, Felix almost immediately threw himself face down onto the plush cushions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m exhausted.” Felix muttered, not even bothering to take any of his outer layers off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me too.” Hyunjin replied, reaching up with a large stretch that bared his entire tummy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In an usual turn of events Hyunjin suddenly shifted back into his cat form, hopping up onto the couch before climbing onto Felix’s back and curling up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix let out a bit of a nervous cry when he realized what was happening, not daring to move.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho gave a small huff. “Looks like Soonie doesn’t hate you anymore.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix wasn’t sure if that was entirely a good thing or not. Also what did Minho mean by ‘anymore’?!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better not move and wake him or else we might be down another couch.” Minho laughed as he headed down the hall towards his bedroom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re joking right?” Felix called after him in a panic. “Minho tell me you’re joking! MINHO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure you’ll be fine! He usually only sleeps six to eight hours at a time!” Minho called back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix let out a long groan as he let his arm dangle off the edge of the couch. It looked like it was going to be a long night.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Curious as to who the individuals Felix and Hyunjin encountered at the home goods store were? This chapter is directly tied in with Chapter 14 of <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262941/chapters/70628400">The Boy and The Bat</a>.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Tags have been updated. Be sure to read them just to be safe.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Winter came a whole lot faster and was a whole lot colder than Felix could have ever anticipated. Having been used to the much more temperature climate of Australia where it never really dropped below 10 degrees Celsius, the negative temperatures and chilling winds of Korea were quite an unpleasant sensation to say the least. Every time he stepped foot outside he couldn’t help but give a full body shudder from how utterly cold it was no matter how many layers he piled on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over the next few weeks the others in the house began to notice how much Felix was struggling to cope.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin, can you take the trash out?” Minho asked one night while cleaning up after dinner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin eyed the small bags of trash laid out near the front door and let out a long, disgruntled sigh before pulling himself away from the kitchen table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, I’ll help!” Felix chimed in, quickly getting to his feet to join Hyunjin at the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin merely passed him a couple of the trash bags without a word of thanks and they headed outside to leave them by the front gate for collection. Felix, despite being bundled up in an oversize sweater, immediately started cursing under his breath when the cold outside air hit his skin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never heard you swear before.” Hyunjin huffed as they briskly walked to the front gate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just really not used to this cold.” Felix replied with a laugh, his teeth already chattering as he anxiously waited for Hyunjin to unlatch the gate before tossing the trash outside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin had barely placed his bags on the ground before Felix was already sprinting back into the house to seek refuge in the warmth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One major downside to the cold was that Felix’s body was simply not used to the severe change in weather and was struggling to try and compensate. Felix soon found himself feeling under the weather more often than not. If he couldn’t keep himself warm his entire body would begin to ache and feel sluggish. It wasn’t uncommon to find Felix walking around the guest house wrapped in a blanket or even burying himself beneath an entire mound of blankets on the living room couch just to stay warm as he went about his daily activities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking of couches, the brand new couch had become a somewhat sacred area to Minho. Minho often scolded the cats for coming within a couple feet of it with their claws bared. Not a single thread was to be harmed on that couch and Minho made it very clear with the holy water spray bottle and a swift swat of a newspaper if anyone dared disobey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix had taken it upon himself to help ease Minho’s mind a little over the couch by finally putting his specialty magic to good use. As it stood, Felix was incredibly gifted at charms and in no time at all he had managed to create a charm that would essentially make the couch’s fabric flame resistant. While it wouldn’t prevent all types of damage, it at least wouldn’t put them without a couch if Hyunjin were to have another hell fire incident.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, the way Felix went about presenting his charm may have unintentionally caused more anxiety than good when he happily pulled Minho into the living room and proceeded to ask Hyunjin to set the couch on fire. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure?” Hyunjin scoffed, looking between Felix and Minho with raised eyebrows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nodded with a reassuring smile. “It’s fine. You’ll see!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t be serious. Hyunjin don’t do it!” Minho blurted out, his eyes already taking on a wild yet panicked look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead, do it Hyunjin.” Felix coaxed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” Hyunjin shrugged, disregarding his own master’s orders as the couch instantly erupted in hell fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop Hyun-NO! What aRE YOU DOING?!” Minho cried, falling to his knees in a frantic state as his $300 deposit also went up in flames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the fire raged on, Minho suddenly became eerily quiet, looking about two seconds away from throttling both Felix and Hyunjin right then and there, the only thing stopping him was deciding on who to kill first. At least, that was until he noticed Hyunjin’s flames weren’t actually burning anything but instead were just lightly dancing across the fabric before self-extinguishing in a puff of smoke, the couch being otherwise completely unharmed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woooooooow.” Hyunjin commented in an impressed tone, resting his hands on his hips. “You’ve got some real talent, fae boy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now you don’t have to worry about the couch catching fire anymore!” Felix said confidently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix what the hell!?” Minho simultaneously cursed while breathing a sigh of relief. “I was literally about to murder you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, uh, is something burning?” Jisung commented while giving a curious sniff, having poked his head around the corner after hearing all the commotion in the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thankfully no.” Minho replied with an agitated crick of his neck. “But we almost had a double homicide on our hands.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright cool, just checking!” Jisung replied before immediately disappearing once again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An awkward silence fell over the room before Minho began to quietly laugh to himself. Both Felix and Hyunin exchanged slightly worried glances between each other as Minho’s laughing continued to get progressively louder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You two are </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> funny, I’ll give you that.” Minho replied as he crumpled onto the floor, rolling onto his back, his heart still racing from the stunt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think you broke him…” Hyunjin muttered to Felix, quickly ushering him out of the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Felix headed upstairs to his room he could still hear Minho laughing from the living room below. It was a little unnerving to say the least but Felix couldn’t help but feel proud that his charm had worked perfectly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the winter days dragged on and the temperature continued to drop, Felix had begun to feel not quite himself. Minho became a little concerned when he noticed Felix had lost his normal sparkle about him during dinner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just not used to this cold.” Felix said, brushing off Minho’s concerns as he often did. “I’m sure it’s nothing too serious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well if you need anything, you know where to find me.” Minho replied as he continued to shovel rice into his open mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Felix laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll take you to buy a nice padding jacket next week. I’m sure that’ll help.” Minho garbled out through a mouth full of food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks.” Felix replied with a small smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho had been out running some odd jobs one morning leaving Hyunjin to fend for himself. When Felix didn’t show up for breakfast at the normal time, Hyunjin had started to become quite concerned, especially since he was hungry and Felix had volunteered to cook breakfast that morning… and he otherwise didn’t have access to the fridge full of meat. Hyunjin waited for a solid twenty minutes, dramatically splayed over the kitchen table but still no Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix!” Hyunjin loudly called from the kitchen. “Hey! Fae boy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When there was no answer Hyunjin went to investigate, barging into Felix’s bedroom without so much as a knock of warning. There he found Felix still in bed, huddled under a pile of blankets, a cold having set in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>starving!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Hyunjin whined, throwing himself down on top of Felix’s bed in an over-the-top manner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry Hyunjin…” Felix mumbled out. “Not today. I’m sure Minho left some cat food out if you’re really that hungry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin made an exaggerated gagging motion at the mention of cat food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” Hyunjin protested once more, sitting up and pulling the blankets off Felix. “You</span>
  <em>
    <span> promised</span>
  </em>
  <span> to cook breakfast.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s body gave a shudder and he desperately reached out for the blankets, pulling them up and over himself once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry... I think I’m sick. It’s just too cold. I can’t seem to pull myself out of bed today.” Felix replied in a sad voice, slowly curling in on himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Tch. Baby</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hyunjin commented with an eyeroll as he abruptly got to his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll show you who’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>too sick</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He angrily muttered to himself in a nonsensical manner as he stalked out of the room and back down the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin made a beeline to the kitchen and went directly for the knife block. His fingers lightly danced over the various handles until he finally settled on a knife, aggressively pulling it from the block. Gently twirling the six inch blade between his fingers, he got a feel for the weight of the knife before tightly gripping it and stalking out of the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This will do nicely.” He muttered to himself in a dark tone, his hair messily falling in his face as he kept his head low.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile upstairs Felix had drifted back to sleep, snuggling tightly in his blankets as Alfie curled up next to him, making small needy noises.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin walked silently through the house, knife gripped tightly in one hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho, forgive me.” He murmured as he loomed menacingly over his unsuspecting prey. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In one swift motion he had plunged the knife down using his full body weight. The knife cut through the layers of fabric like butter as he quickly yanked it free, plunging it down once more will full force. He began frantically stabbing, over and over until a sweat had broken across his forehead and his breathing was erratic. When he was finally finished he was breathing heavily from mild exhaustion but laughing ever so slightly, eyes trained solely on the carnage laid out before him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He took a step back, cracking a sly smile as he did so, holding up a large rectangular piece of fabric he had haphazardly cut from one of the couch cushions with the kitchen knife.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, this </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> do nicely.” Hyunjin beamed, quickly replacing the knife back in the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the next hour or so Hyunjin holed himself away in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs but only after he managed to scavenge a couple stray sewing needles from an emergency kit Minho had left in one of the closets. Sitting hunched over the fabric he flattened it out with his hands, closely inspecting the jagged edges. Hyunjin gently pulled at a couple threads from the fabric, using his small fangs to cut them loose while twisting them together to create his own sewing thread. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a bit of a struggle threading the needle, he carefully sewed the piece of fabric into a little square pouch about three inches in diameter. Once he had inspected all of the seams, he ever-so-carefully created the smallest ball of hell fire in the palm of his hand, gently coaxing it inside the small fabric pouch before quickly sealing it closed with the remaining thread. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sat back and stared intently at the pouch laying on the floor as if expecting something to happen. Giving it a small prod with his finger it was incredibly warm from the small flame inside but otherwise nothing happened. A large, pleased grin quickly spread from ear to ear as he picked it, feeling its warmth radiating through the charmed fabric.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix! Hey Felix!” Hyunjin called as he happily cradled his creation in the palm of his hands, rushing out of the spare room and barging back into Felix’s bedroom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix merely let out a small groan having been awoken once more from his sleep, pink blush having slowly crept onto his freckled cheeks as his body fought to regulate his temperature. He let out a small congested sniffle and Hyunjin took that as an invitation to approach, tossing the small bean bag-like creation at Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here. Now you can stop being cold and make me some food.” Hyunjin said proudly as Felix fumbled to catch the small fabric pouch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was a little puzzled by what Hyunjin had just tossed at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is this? It’s warm. It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> warm. Is this... a hot pack?” Felix asked, turning the small fabric bundle over in his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah! I made it!” Hyunjin beamed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You made it? With what?” Felix asked, his mind desperately trying to piece things together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hell fire.” Hyunjin replied casually. “So don’t lose it.” His expression immediately changed to something much more intimidating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nervously nodded and quickly tucked it into his sweater pocket. Almost immediately felt the heat start to radiate through his body. It was like that little bit of warmth had caused a jolt of energy to surge through him and it wasn’t long at all before he was feeling ten times better and was finally able to drag himself out of bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go prep the stove for breakfast.” Hyunjin commented before disappearing from the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After giving his body a full stretch and washing up a bit, Felix slowly shuffled his way down the stairs to the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you Hyunjin.” Felix said warmly as he entered to find him already anxiously waiting there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just make sure to include extra meat in my breakfast okay?” Hyunjin replied, almost vibrating in his seat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, you got it.” Felix laughed as he went to dig out the frying pan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several hours later Minho returned home with a nice wad of cash in his pocket from the odd jobs he had managed to complete and his arms full of groceries. He had barely taken a couple steps into the house when his eye caught something strange in the living room and he detoured from his original path to take a better look. His eyes immediately began to burn with rage when he realized what he was looking at.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck HAPPENED TO THE COUCH!?” Minho yelled, dropping his bags on the living room floor with a loud thud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There before him was the true crime scene; the center couch cushion missing a large piece of fabric from the middle of it with small pieces of foam and stuffing spilling out onto the living room floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“HYUNJIN!” Minho yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin, who had been in Minho’s room looking up some articles on his laptop immediately slammed it closed when he heard his name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh oh, I’m in trouble.” Hyunjin gave a nervous laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Without a second thought he shifted into his feline form, hopping down from his chair and quickly slinking out of sight to avoid Minho’s wrath, praying that Minho would find the conveniently placed piece of couch stuffing in Doongie’s cat bed before he found him.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter contains blood, gore, and corpses. Just a heads up.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Late one evening Minho was sitting in the living room, absorbed in a manhwa volume he had borrowed from a cafe down the street with Soonie curled up and purring on his lap while Doongie lay resting beside him on the couch. Minho would alternate between casually petting the two cats between page turns. Felix decided to take this opportunity to maybe get to know Minho a little better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Minho, um, do you mind if I ask you some questions about your familiars?” Felix asked nervously, timidly sitting in a chair opposite Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, shoot.” Minho replied, snapping his manhwa shut and tossing it on the couch cushion beside him. “Ask whatever you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I know it’s normal for witches, here at least, to have a demon familiar but how exactly did you end up with multiple familiars?” Felix asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho let out a small laugh as he looked down at the two cats splayed around him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doongie here’s my main familiar.” Minho explained as Doongie let out a happy trill, affectionately rubbing his chin against Minho’s hand. “I’ve had him since I was little. Soonie’s only been with me for a few years, Dori even less than that but he’s not around right now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But how or why exactly did you take on Soonie when you already had Doongie?” Felix asked, his curiosity piqued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, it’s sort of a complicated story.” Minho replied cracking a sly smile, gently stroking Soonie’s soft fur. “Let’s just say after a couple questionable life choices on both our parts I ended up with this gremlin under my care.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[3 years prior]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was an impossibly hot and humid summer night and the air was filled with the songs of crickets as Minho made his way down the narrow back streets towards the neighbourhood convenience store. The air conditioning in his small basement apartment had stopped working four days earlier and he hadn’t the money to get it fixed. After spending what felt like forever tossing and turning and marinating in his own sweat he had lazily pushed Doongie off his chest, deciding to get some fresh air even if it wasn’t all that much cooler outside. As he was in no hurry to get back to his stuffy apartment, he took the longest route possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not too far away, a figure shrouded in darkness was stumbling through the dark streets as they clung tightly to their right side. Hyunjin was desperate and frantic and just trying to get as far away from </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> as he could—as if he was being pursued by an invisible assailant, constantly checking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t being followed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every few steps he had to pause, leaning heavily against the stone and plaster walls of the narrow alleyways and leaving bloody smears as he went. He let out a deep gasp as the pain in his side intensified, nearly knocking him off his feet. Clenching his jaw and giving a violent shudder he pulled himself together and pressed on. He was being drawn towards something old, something ancient, something that he wasn’t even sure if it existed anymore but he kept pressing forward trying to find whatever it was. However it wasn’t long before his body had reached its limit. He had finally made it out of the maze-like backstreets and into the dark, empty forested neighbourhood park but had only made it halfway up a steep incline before his legs had given out beneath him causing him to collapse on the steps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Resting his head against the cool concrete he gritted his fanged teeth as he rolled onto his side. Something inside of him told him he had to keep going but he did not have the physical strength to do so. He pulled away his hand that had been holding tightly onto his side only to see the massive amount of blood that was now staining his hand and clothes and he let out a long, irritated hiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit.” He cursed with a defeated sigh, trying his best to keep conscious as his eyelids became heavier as the seconds passed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gave his head a small shake, bringing himself back to his senses momentarily as he looked up towards the top of the stairs, his unknown goal so close yet so far away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was at that moment he sensed someone approaching. At the bottom of the steps Minho had appeared, completely oblivious to the situation in front of him as he frantically fiddled with something on his phone as he walked, a popsicle hanging out of his mouth and black convenience store back slung in the crook of his elbow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t until Minho was literally right on top of Hyunjin’s body that he noticed him splayed on the stairs, cautiously pulling the popsicle from his mouth with a cringed expression as he took a step back. Hyunjin struggled to push himself up but had lost far too much blood and merely collapsed back onto the steps with a small defeated cry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You alright?” Minho asked, his tone unnaturally calm as he leaned down to cautiously survey the situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leave me alone, witch.” Hyunjin growled, baring his fangs as his eyes flickered red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a last ditch effort, Hyunjin tried to shift back into his cat form but was far too weak to sustain it for more than a couple seconds before reverting back to his human form, flopping onto his back with another pained hiss. He shakily clutched at his side once more in a futile attempt to stave off the pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re a familiar?” Minho asked in the same eerily calm voice with a curious raise of his eyebrows. He scanned the immediate area around them as if looking for his master but soon realized that the two of them were completely alone. “That’s damn a nasty wound you’ve got there...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho motioned with the popsicle stick to Hyunjin’s bloodied side as Hyunjin groaned in agony.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just kill me and get it over with.” Hyunjin spat back, glaring at Minho from beneath his shaggy long hair. “I know your kind. Just do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kill you? Why would I do that?” Minho asked, putting his convenience store bag down and crouching beside Hyunjin, tilting his head a little to get a better look at his injuries.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look at me, I’m a familiar covered in the blood of my master. Blood by my own hand.” Hyunjin replied bitterly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahh so it’s not all </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> blood. That’s a relief.” Minho replied, lifting the edge of Hyunjin’s shirt up slightly before Hyunjin swatted his hand away, immediately regretting such a large movement as he curled in on himself from the pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you attacked your master?” Minho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Killed.” Hyunjin replied bluntly as his eyes flickered a bright red once more. He wasn’t even trying to hide what he had done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Killed? Yikes.” Minho said with a bit of a cringe but devoid of all other emotions. “So you killed your master and now you want me to end your life?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go for it, they’ll send the hunters after me by morning when they find the body anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho sat there silently crouched on the steps, deep in thought for what felt like an eternity to Hyunjin before he finally spoke again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have a better idea.” Minho said with a glint in his eyes. “Become my familiar. I’ll take responsibility from here on out. And by doing so it’ll also get rid of that nasty curse you’ve got going on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t be serious.” Hyunjin huffed in disbelief. “You really want damaged goods as a familiar?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I mean why not?” Minho said with a shrug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho reached over, extending his hand to Hyunjin. Hyunjin gazed up at him with a look of utter disbelief mixed with mild disgust but his expression slowly softened when he realized Minho was being sincere. It wasn’t long before Hyunjin shakily reached out and took hold of Minho’s hand, accepting his offer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a good boy.” Minho muttered with a sly smile as a bright red magic circle immediately appeared around them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho was powerful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho was ridiculously powerful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Within a minute or so he had already managed to complete the complex spell needed to make Hyunjin his familiar. As the light from the magic circle faded and disappeared, Hyunjin lay on his back in continued disbelief, his chest heaving as his eyes flickered red for a brief moment, focusing only on Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell are you?” Hyunjin muttered, looking up at him with an expression of bewilderment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A witch. Like you said.” Minho replied as he got to his feet, picking up his convenience store bag once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin slowly sat up, his body no longer protesting against the slightest of movements. He cautiously lifted up his shirt to find that his wounds had completely disappeared. Instead smooth purple-coloured flesh was in their place, distinctly outlining four large slash marks across his right side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, I’m not exactly the best healer.” Minho commented as Hyunjin ran his fingers over the marks. “But making you my familiar at least negated the otherwise unbreakable pain transfer curse that I’m assuming your deceased master had placed on you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“H-how did you know?” Hyunjin stuttered out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno, just good at spotting those things I guess.” Minho shrugged. “Anyways we should probably go clean up your mess now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin looked up at him with a slightly puzzled look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can’t just leave a dead body laying around.” Minho elaborated and Hyunjin quickly nodded in response, not knowing exactly what Minho meant by ‘cleaning up.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin struggled to get back to his feet, dusting himself off and pushing back his blood-matted hair before quickly leading Minho back through the dark streets and alleys, back to his former master’s house. A dark aura was already hanging over the house by the time they arrived but this did not slow down Minho in the slightest. When they entered through the front door which had been left ajar from Hyunjin fleeing not too long ago, the smell of blood and char was almost overwhelming and Hyunjin quickly covered his nose and mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“God I didn’t realize it was this bad.” He muttered behind his hand as they entered the living room, the grotesque body of Hyunjin’s former master laying in a pool of his own blood while a large amount of the room around him was black and smoldering with embers still glowing in places.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin hung back as Minho casually walked into the room and crouched down beside the corpse. Minho could see the matching four deep slash marks across the side of the body, they matched Hyunjin’s perfectly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really did a number on him, didn’t you.” Minho muttered, looking over the body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… I had no other choice.” Hyunjin muttered quietly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have a temper problem I should know about?” Minho asked, looking back at Hyunjin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me? No!” Hyunjin blurted out in an offended tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what drove you to killing your own master?” Minho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin immediately averted eye contact, pressing himself against the door frame he stood under in an attempt to make himself seem as small as possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He… he made me do a lot of terrible things.” Hyunjin replied in a quiet voice. “A lot of terrible things I would never have done of my own free will but being that I was his familiar I could never refuse. And that curse… I couldn’t even fight back against his constant tormenting as any wound I dared to inflict on him would be transferred to this body instead. I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take another innocent life on his behalf… so I took his life instead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho let out a small hum in contemplation but otherwise said nothing else before creating a series of magic circles over the body. Hyunjin watched intently as Minho worked, not knowing exactly what he was watching but after several excruciatingly long minutes he noticed the body’s fingers give a twitch. In no time at all the body on the floor suddenly sat up with a gasp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man who had been a corpse only minutes before seemed extremely disoriented but was very much alive. Hyunjin’s eyes went wide, half in fear, half in shock.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man tried to stutter something out but Minho quickly stopped him, placing a hand on the man’s forehead, a strange purple glowing coming from beneath his palm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will forget what has happened tonight. You will forget—” Minho stopped mid-sentence and turned back to Hyunjin. “What was your name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, Hyunjin.” He replied nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will forget Hyunjin ever existed. You never had a familiar. Anything you ever caused your familiar to do on your behalf was instead done by your own hands.” Minho continued in a stern voice. “When the sun rises tomorrow morning, you will turn yourself in to the authorities and admit to all the crimes you have committed. Is that understood?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man gave a dazed nod and Minho quickly removed his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good. Now clean up this mess and go to bed.” Minho instructed the man as he slowly got to his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All done, let’s go.” Minho said abruptly to Hyunjin as he picked up his convenience store bag once more and left the room, Hyunjin turning to quickly follow after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, what did you just do?!” Hyunjin asked in a panic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cleaned up your mess, of course.” Minho replied in a sarcastic tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I mean really. What did you do to him?” Hyunjin pressed, throwing himself in front of Minho to stop him from taking another step.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quick memory charm.” Minho replied with a huff. “I mean, after I resurrected him from the dead so you wouldn’t be charged with killing your master.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seriously, what the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span> are you?” Hyunjin scoffed. “You are </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> just some casual witch.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Necromancer. First class.” Minho replied casually, making eye contact with Hyunjin as a shiver ran through Hyunjin’s entire body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit.” Hyunjin cursed under his breath as Minho pushed past him and walked out into the street.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, let’s go. You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> familiar now, it’s time to go home and meet your brother.” Minho said, giving his thighs a light slap while holding out his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a small exasperated sigh but was quick to shift back into his feline form, chasing after Minho and jumping into his open arms. Minho gently cradled him, carefully petting over his soft fur.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a good boy.” Minho cooed as he began to make the long walk home. “I think I’ll call you... Soonie. I’m sure you and Doongie will get along just perfectly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a small disgruntled mew but Minho only held him even closer, his convenience store bag swinging from his arm as he walked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re safe now.” Minho said in a voice barely about a whisper as he nuzzled his nose against Soonie’s furry little head. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again… And even if they do, I’ll just keep bringing you back, whatever it takes.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The days continued to get colder and colder as they entered the dead of winter and for the first time in years a thick blanket of snow covered the ground, causing the normal bustling city to slow down just a little. Felix found the snow absolutely magical and would often find himself getting lost in his own thoughts as he stared up at it while walking home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Experiencing winter for the first time was both exciting and a little terrifying for him as even with the help of Hyunjin’s homemade hot pack Felix found it had gotten to the point where it was so cold that it became much more difficult to use his any sort of magic. Due to his powers being directly tied to the seasons because of his fae blood, he had found his magic had begun to wane significantly. He found it most difficult using his broom as even wearing heavy mittens, his hands grew so cold so fast he’d lose feeling in them within a couple minutes making it nearly impossible to steer while exhausting all his energy just trying to stay in the air. He had definitely had a couple close calls with some less than enthused pedestrians over the past couple of days and had decided maybe it would be best to walk to class for the time being. At least this gave him time to fully appreciate the snow, often stopping to build little snowmen here and there on the way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix had become very vigilant of the weather and tried his best to take extra precautions to keep warm—Hyunjin’s hot pack hardly ever leaving his pocket—but the night the hot water heater broke in the guest house turned out to be a dangerous lesson for everyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had started out as a normal evening and Felix had elected for a hot shower before bed. The hot water felt quite soothing on his skin and it was a nice reprieve from the dangerously cold weather outside as the temperatures had once again dipped into the negatives. It wasn’t long before Felix had lost track of how long he had been standing in the shower, just letting the water wash over him. When he finally snapped himself out of his daze he quickly began scrubbing himself down, not wanting to hoard the shared bathroom for too long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It came as quite a shock when he was halfway done rinsing his hair and the water suddenly turned ice cold. Felix let out a yelp in surprise, pressing himself tightly against the corner of the shower and as far away from the cold stream of water as he could, hoping someone had momentarily turned on the kitchen tap and it would change back to a normal temperature. But it did not and he sloppily slicked his wet mop of hair out of his eyes as he blindly reached for the shower knobs, desperately turning them back and forth for any inkling of hot water. After several long minutes and multiple failed attempts at bringing the hot water back, Felix begrudgingly resigned to the ice cold shower he would be forced to take. He quickly dunked his head in the icy stream to wash out the last of the soap. By the time he was done he was so cold his teeth had begun to chatter and he couldn’t towel himself off fast enough. He quickly hopped out of the shower and redressed before immediately going to find Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he walked out of the bathroom which was across from Minho’s bedroom on the main floor he peered inside to see Soonie and Doongie curled up on his futon but Minho nowhere to be seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho?” Felix called as he crossed his arms tightly as another shiver ran through him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In the living room!” Minho’s voice replied from down the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix shuffled down the hall until he came upon Minho sprawled on the couch playing some sort of mobile game on his phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey I, uh, think the hot water’s run out.” Felix said, yet another shiver running through his body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho let out a disgruntled sigh as he lowered his phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn this old house. I swear that’s the third time this month.” Minho grumbled, looking up at Felix. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It should be back by the morning but if not I’ll have someone come take a look at it. Sorry about that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no it’s fine!” Felix said with a nervous laugh. “Just wanted to let you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks!” Minho replied as he casually went back to his game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he headed off to bed, Felix hoped the brisk shower was the worst of his problems that night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was unfortunately quite sorely mistaken.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was nearing the extremely early hours of the morning when Felix awoke with a startle. He was shivering so intensely that he had somehow managed to fully pull himself out of his sleep. When he exhaled he noticed he could see his breath momentarily hang in the air. Letting out a small groan he swiftly pulled the blankets up over his head trying to bundle himself up as tightly as he could but his muscles were already fatigued from shivering and he found he couldn’t even keep a good grip on the blankets. It was so ridiculously cold even Alfie had buried himself in the blankets alongside Felix in an attempt to find any sort of heat source but not even the small possum was having an easy time keeping warm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fumbling blindly under the covers Felix desperately attempted to find his hot pack. The longer he searched the more frustrated he became until he finally found it clutched tightly in Alfie’s claws.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on Alfie, you need to share!” Felix grumbled, giving the fabric of the hot pack a gentle tug but Alfie held steadfast, not daring to part with his heat source.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on! You have fur! I need this more than you.” Felix whined as he fought with the possum.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie let out an angry guttural noise as Felix continued to struggle with him. When Felix was finally able to get a strong hold on the corner of the hot pack, with a swift motion he was finally able to yank it out of Alfie’s grasp. What he had not expected was for Alfie’s tiny claws to become entangled in one of the seams, ripping the small pouch wide open. In a flash of brilliant orange light, the small amount of hell fire that had been trapped inside escaped into the air before quickly extinguishing in a puff of smoke leaving a lingering smell of char and singed fur.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Alfie look what you’ve done now!” Felix sighed in desperation, pulling the empty pouch up to his face to inspect its empty contents before tossing the empty fabric to the floor. “Guess we will need to find a better way to keep warm now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie let out a couple of small squeaks and buried himself under the blankets at Felix’s feet out of shame.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reluctantly Felix dragged himself out of bed with a long sigh, his entire body giving a violent shudder from the cold air as he threw on a hoodie and crossed his arms tightly in front of him. Within seconds of leaving the blankets his teeth were already chattering and he knew something definitely wasn’t right in the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pulling himself to his feet he quickly shuffled out of his room and down the stairs to the living room. His entire body was already aching terribly from his uncontrolled shivering but he trudged on until he was able to locate the thermostat. He tried turning up the heat but the little lever didn’t seem to be moving. Giving the thermostat a couple forceful taps it quickly became evident that something must be broken. Felix placed his hand on the thermostat and tried muttering a couple mending charms under his breath but absolutely nothing was working. It was as if his powers had been completely sapped from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come onnnnn.” Felix whined as he gave his cold hands a violent flick, desperately trying to get his circulation back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shuffled his way down the hall towards Minho’s room, knocking lightly on the door before cracking it open an inch to peer inside. Minho was fast asleep on a futon on the ground with Soonie and Doongie curled up next to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho! </span>
  <em>
    <span>Psst</span>
  </em>
  <span> Minho!” Felix whispered aggressively from the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho gave a small groan and shifted in his sleep as Doongie gave a large stretch beside him, having been disturbed by the sudden movement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho wake up! It’s impossibly cold in this house. I think the heat is broken!” Felix continued, much louder this time through chattering teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm? Heat broken?” Minho muttered, lazily rubbing his eyes with his hands. “Mmm that’s not good. I’ll fix it first thing in the morning.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Um, okay thanks! ...I guess?” Felix replied as he quietly closed the door behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated that Minho didn’t seem to find an issue with how cold it was. As he turned to head back to his room a wave of dizziness suddenly came over him. He stumbled slightly before righting himself and carrying on his way. However Felix knew that something definitely did not feel right as his limbs began to feel incredibly heavy and it became harder and harder for him to keep his balance. He had barely made it up the stairs when he began to waver in place. Trying to steady himself was no use as his body gave out without warning and he crumpled onto the hallway floor just outside his bedroom door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alfie…” Felix called weakly but his eyelids were becoming heavy and he couldn’t keep himself conscious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wouldn’t be for another couple of hours before Alfie finally discovered Felix lying unconscious in the hallway, letting out a series of concerned squeaks and grunts as he tried to wake Felix by nuzzling his face with his nose. Alfie even resorted to jumping on top of Felix’s chest, pulling at the strings of his hoodie with his small teeth but nothing seemed to work. When his ears picked up the sound of Minho snoring below he quickly scampered downstairs in search of help, heading straight towards Minho’s bedroom and began incessantly scratching at the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From inside the room, Minho was slowly pulled out of his deep sleep by the frantic scratching noises but he still wasn’t fully coherent as he groggily looked around trying to find out where they were coming from.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Soonie, cut that out.” Minho grumbled as he slowly sat up only to realize both Soonie and Doongie were still curled up beside him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho stumbled to his feet and answered the door in a dazed, half-asleep state. His eyes immediately fell on the small possum standing at his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alfie? What is it?” Minho grumbled as he rubbed his face and ruffled his hair, a chill running through his body as he realized just how cold it actually was in the house. “Fuck it’s cold.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie frantically circled his feet a couple times before scampering back down the hall, turning back to look at Minho in an attempt to get him to follow. Minho let out a long sigh but eventually grabbed a sweater to put on and dragged himself out of his room, following the possum down the hall and to the stairs. Minho had only climbed a couple steps before Felix’s body came into view.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix!” Minho cried in a panic as he clambered up the remaining steps on all fours.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho quickly knelt down beside him, giving his shoulder a gentle shake but Felix was unresponsive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix? Hey! Wake up!” Minho called but still no response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pressing his ear against Felix’s chest he could still feel the rise and fall of his breathing and he could still hear a faint heartbeat so he was definitely still alive but Minho couldn’t figure out what was wrong or why he wasn’t waking up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck why is he so cold?” Minho muttered, feeling the icy flesh of Felix’s neck as he continued checking vitals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho began muttering a series of incantations under his breath and a large red magic circle appeared beneath Felix. Minho’s eyes quickly darted over him, looking for any sign as to what might have happened but the spell he had cast revealed absolutely nothing. As the circle faded away Minho still had no clue what was wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why can’t I get a good reading on him?” Minho cursed. “Is it because he’s not fully human? But I can read demons just fine…” Minho turned to the frantic possum that was still circling Felix. “Do you know what’s wrong with him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfie just gave a couple squeaks before scurrying away and hiding in his bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh course you don’t.” Minho replied in a dry tone with a roll of his eyes. “Non-verbal familiars. Such a pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho sat back on his knees with a frustrated sigh. He was quickly reaching his wit’s end but he couldn’t just leave Felix like this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung! Hyunjin! Come quickly!” Minho called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In almost an instant the sound of paws could be head running across the floor, quickly replaced by the sound of feet on the stairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it? What happened?” Jisung asked in a worried voice, already out of breath as ran up behind Minho only to see Felix on the floor. “Oh my god… is he dead?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No but whatever happened, it’s not good. He’s way too cold.” Minho replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit.” Hyunjin cursed as he peered over Minho’s shoulder into Felix’s bedroom and saw the empty hot pack laying on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We need to get him warmed up.” Minho was quick to start firing off instructions. “Jisung I need you to go see if you can find any electric blankets in storage. Hyunjin I need you to help me get him back to his bed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both familiars nodded. Jisung bolted back down the stairs to the hall storage while Hyunjin carefully helped Minho pick up Felix off the floor and transfer him back over to his bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck Minho, why is it so cold in this damn house?” Hyunjin cursed as he laid Felix down and began piling on as many blankets as he could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix did say something last night about the hot water running out… and the heat being broken...” Minho replied. “Shit… I knew that ancient hot water tank was bound to go sooner or later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well it looks like you really fucked up this time.” Hyunjin angrily blurted out. “Fae are really susceptible to the cold! You could have killed him! If he’s only half-fae like you said I wouldn’t be surprised if his body probably forced itself into some sort of weird hibernative state to save energy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“H… How on earth do you know all that?” Minho asked, blinking wide-eyed in confusion at Hyunjin’s sudden exposition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe I’ve been doing my own research on the little weirdo.” Hyunjin muttered, having not expected Minho to question him. “It’s none of your business how or why I know things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well whatever it is, I can’t be known for accidentally killing one of our house guests. It would completely destroy any sort of future in attracting guests and we’d all be homeless by the end of the month.” Minho continued as he frustratedly ruffled his hair. “Jisung! Where the hell are those blankets!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coming!” Jisung called as he rushed back to the bedroom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In an instant Jisung had appeared in the doorway carrying a large blanket that was old and worn and that somehow managed to look older than his human form. It was an antique to say the least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This thing is so old, you sure it’ll even work?” Jisung asked as he pulled out the frayed cord.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just shrugged and Jisung went ahead and cautiously plugged it in to the nearest outlet. Ever so slowly it began to heat up but it wasn’t long before a burning smell started to emit from the blanket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t smell good at all.” Jisung began to say but no sooner had the words left his mouth than the cord began to spark and the entire thing immediately short circuited. “Shit” He cursed as he quickly unplugged it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This won’t work, we need something else.” Minho said as he paced back and forth. “Do we have any space heaters?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung shook his head. “Nah we only had the one we left at your old apartment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do we have any hot water bottles?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“With what hot water?” Hyunjin huffed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Couldn’t you use your hell fire to heat up the room?” Minho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened to the ‘no hell fire in the house’ rule?” Hyunjin replied in a snotty tone. “You wanna risk me setting something on fire and burning the whole place down?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho let out another frustrated sigh knowing Hyunjin was unfortunately right and he continued pacing. Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks and looked over at Hyunjin with a bit of a sour expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Hyunjin asked with raised eyebrows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin, lend your body heat to Felix.” Minho instructed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” Hyunjin blurted out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just temporarily.” Minho clarified. “You’re a cat, you like cuddling.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, when I’m</span>
  <em>
    <span> a cat,</span>
  </em>
  <span> not when I’m a human.” Hyunjin huffed, crossing his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin please.” Minho begged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, what? You want me to like, just crawl in bed and snuggle with him?” Hyunjin replied with raised eyebrows. “Please. Don’t make me part of your weird fanfic fantasies, Minho.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s literally the only option we’ve got right now.” Minho replied sternly. “And you’ve got the highest body temperature out of all of us so like</span>
  <em>
    <span> you</span>
  </em>
  <span> said before, unless </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> want him freezing to death while Jisung and I are trying to fix the hot water—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay okay fine! I get it!” Hyunjin huffed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great, me and Jisung will be downstairs. If his condition gets any worse let me know immediately, got it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever.” Hyunjin grumbled as he looked over Felix’s small form bundled up in the blankets as Minho and Jisung sprinted out of the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could have just admitted you were a perv Minho.” He mumbled as he carefully lifted up the comforter and slid under the covers next to Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite the multiple times in the past where Hyunjin had all too happily curled up on Felix’s lap while in his cat form he suddenly felt awkward getting so close to him in this form. He just rigidly lay on his back next to him for several long minutes before he gave his long hair a frustrated ruffle knowing that him just laying there wasn’t going to help. He rolled over onto his side and looked over at Felix sleeping next to him. Somehow, Felix managed to look so small under the mountain of blankets. Hyunjin's face slowly melted into a pained expression at how utterly pale and dull Felix’s skin had become and how he had even lost the usual sparkly aura about him. Felix’s body temperature had dropped so low he wasn’t even shivering, it was almost as if he were a corpse. Hyunjin quickly shook his head to get the bad thoughts out of his mind and slowly inched closer, gently taking Felix’s hands in his own in an attempt to start warming him up. Hyunjin couldn’t believe how icy cold Felix’s tiny hands felt in his and a shiver ran through his own body. Carefully he placed Felix’s hands against his chest and wrapped his arms around him, pulling Felix in close as he focussed on the hell fire within him to slowly raise his body temperature.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t get any weird ideas.” Hyunjin mumbled knowing full well that Felix couldn’t hear him. “I’m only doing this so you don’t die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After around half an hour or so Felix finally stirred, letting out a small whine as he began to shiver in Hyunjin’s arms. Having quickly become quite flustered, Hyunjin’s eyes went wide and he immediately removed his hands from Felix. He tried to pull away but Felix quickly latched onto his t-shirt, balling the fabric tightly in his fists and pulling himself in tighter, trying to get as close to the warmth emanating from Hyunjin as he could. He didn’t open his eyes but instead clung tightly to Hyunjin, nuzzling gently against his collarbone. Hyunjin wasn’t sure if it was the hell fire or his own emotions but he could feel his cheeks burning red as Felix continued to let out a series of small needy noises.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shh everything is okay.” Hyunjin whispered as he gently patted over the back of Felix’s hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Felix’s shivering slowly began to subside, Hyunjin carefully pulled him in tightly once more as he gently rested his cheek against the top of his head, deeply breathing in Felix’s sweet natural floral aroma.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly the colour began to return to Felix’s freckled cheeks and his body finally stopped shivering all together. It still took another hour or so for him to finally wake though. Lazily blinking as he tried to open his eyes, he couldn’t figure out what exactly had happened but the warmth currently in front of him was absolutely wonderful and he gently nuzzled his cheek against the soft, warm surface that he didn’t realize was Hyunjin’s chest while letting out a happy sigh. For once the roles were reversed and Hyunjin dared to not move a muscle. As Felix slowly became more and more aware of his surroundings, his grasp on Hyunjin’s shirt loosened and reluctantly started to pull away, his eyes straining to focus on Hyunjin’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmmm…? H-Hyunjin?” Felix mumbled out in confusion, his face immediately flushing bright red when he noticed his apparent proximity to the familiar, quickly closing his eyes one more while rubbing them profusely in disbelief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin panicked and as soon as Felix had pulled away he muttered some sort of spell under his breath and with a poof he had turned back into a cat. Letting out a small meow he quickly hopped off the bed and scampered down the hall and out of sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time Felix opened his eyes once more, Soonie was gone and a thick fog had suddenly clouded his mind. He shook his head and tried to piece his thoughts back together. It had been cold… he had noticed the heat wasn’t working and told Minho and then he headed back to bed… and? And…? Had there been someone in bed with him? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix looked down at the empty bed space beside him and quickly placed his hand on the mattress but it was already cold. Had he imagined Hyunjin? Or was it Soonie? He definitely remembered Soonie. Felix gave his cheeks a couple forceful pats as he got his bearings. He quickly convinced himself that it must have just been some sort of weird dream.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Groggily Felix pulled himself out of bed once more. He could hear a lot of clanging and banging coming from downstairs and he slowly made his way down to the source of the noise. It wasn’t long before he found Minho splayed under the kitchen sink with Jisung sitting on the adjacent counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you guys up to?” Felix asked in a tired voice, rubbing the heavy sleep out of his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho sat up too quickly, hitting his head on the underside of the countertop and immediately falling back down with a pained hiss as he grasped at his throbbing scalp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Attempting to fix the hot water heater so the heat will work again.” Jisung explained casually as he happily twirled a flashlight between his fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> doing though?” Minho asked through gritted teeth, still trying to stave off the throbbing on the top of his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine? I think? I don’t know. I had the weirdest dream though.” Felix said with a small laugh as blush crept onto his cheeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung and Minho exchanged a quick glance between them, both wondering if Felix was going to bring up what had happened that night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways I’m gonna go wash up and then make some breakfast. Sound good?” Felix said with a tired smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung and Minho just gave a couple nods as Felix disappeared down the hall to the washroom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think Hyunjin used a memory charm on him…” Jisung muttered in a voice barely above a whisper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Must have. We might be in the clear for now.” Minho breathed a sigh of relief. “Hyunjin’s shit at charms though so my confidence in the charm actually sticking is about here.” Minho said as he held his hand only a couple inches off the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung let a rather boisterous snicker, rolling back onto the counter as Minho just sat on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think this is more than something I can fix.” Minho said in defeat. “The hot water I mean, not Hyunjin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah figured as much.” Jisung said with a huff. “While you were struggling with the hot water connection I already called a maintenance company to come fix the boiler or hot water heater or whatever is actually broken instead of us just fucking around with things hoping something might eventually work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho blinked heavily, staring coldly at Jisung in disbelief. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think you’re funny?” He said in a monotone voice. “I don’t know whether to throttle you or… or…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You're welcome!” Jisung replied in a sarcastic sing-song voice while shooting Minho finger guns and then immediately changing back to his cat form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Minho could say another word, Doongie had sprinted off and disappeared somewhere in the living room leaving Minho to clean up the mess in the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I really need someone with some actual human life skills around this house." Minho grumbled, letting out another long sigh. "I think it might be time to bring Dori back...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several hours later the hot water had finally been fixed by an actual expert and the heat was working once more. Everything seemed back to normal without Felix being any the wiser of the dangerous close call he had. Minho, feeling guilty about the situation eventually came clean to him and explained that they had found him cold and unconscious in the hall. He vowed to take better care of the guest house to better protect everyone who lived there. Felix brushed it off like it was no big deal but deep down he was really glad that Minho and the others had come to his aid as he too was still learning how the winter was affecting him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite how much Minho might have protested in an attempt to make him take things easy, Felix had insisted on washing the dishes after dinner. It wasn’t until Felix jokingly threatened to curse him if he didn’t back off that Minho begrudgingly headed off to the living room to continue his mobile game from the other day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nearly jumped out of his skin when Hyunjin suddenly appeared beside him at the sink, having been absent most of the day. He was holding something in his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here. Fixed it.” Hyunjin muttered, tossing the mended hot pack back to Felix. “Don’t let yourself get too cold again, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh thanks!” Felix replied, clutching the warm hot pack tightly against his chest as he ran his fingers over the wonky patchwork stitching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Cause next time you collapse I might not be there to help. I don’t want anything bad happening to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Hyunjin’s words slowly sunk in and the events of the night before finally fully pieced themselves together, Felix’s head quickly jerked up as his eyes went wide at the realization. By the time he had whipped around to face Hyunjin he was gone but a lingering heat was still burning intensely on Felix’s cheeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you Hyujin.” Felix said quietly as he looked back down at the hot pack with a fond smile.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This short side story was inspired by the actual food ordering app that exists in my area called Ritual because I always like joking that I'm summoning my food. As a heads ups, this chapter deals with a lot of food and the concept of over-eating.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>After moving into the empty guest house for the first time, money was especially tight and Minho had taken on odd jobs around the neighbourhood to make some extra money in order to pay off the remaining debt on the place. Oftentimes he would head out on a job for the day leaving Jisung and Hyunjin at home. On this particular day Jisung had reluctantly been tasked with a couple small jobs himself leaving Hyunjin home alone to look after the house and to bring in any packages that may be delivered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having lounged around in his cat form for a couple hours, Hyunjin had quickly become bored, shifting forms as he began flicking through the few free channels that were available on the old TV that had been left by the previous owners. It wasn’t until Hyunjin heard a strange yet persistent buzzing noise coming from between the couch cushions that he realized Minho had accidentally left his cell phone behind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having no real use for a phone, Hyunjin tossed it to the side and went back to mindlessly flipping through the TV channels. Having rolled upside down on the couch, Hyunjin’s bare feet were kicked up on the back wall while his head hung off the edge of the cushions, eyes glazed over from the dull content presented on the screen in front of him. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>BUZZ BUZZ</span>
  </em>
  <span> went the phone as it sat on the nearby cushion, pulling Hyunjin’s attention back to it momentarily before his eyes lazily turned back to the TV.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several minutes passed before the phone let out another </span>
  <em>
    <span>BUZZ BUZZ</span>
  </em>
  <span> as a new notification came in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With every new notification, Hyunjin’s curiosity began to grow and eventually it got the better of him. After what must have been the fifteenth notification, he snatched up the phone and proceeded to try and figure out how to unlock it. Within the first three tries of the passcode Hyunjin was in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Too easy.” Hyunjin smirked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring all of the notifications that had piled up at the top of the screen, Hyunjin instead began scrolling through the dozens and dozens of apps Minho had installed. The majority of the apps did nothing to pique his interest further but as he was reaching the bottom of the list something finally caught his eye. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There, sitting in the middle screen, was a small teal square with the word “Ritual” written below it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin looked at the small square curiously, hovering his finger over it wondering if it might actually have something to do with Minho’s powers. Had technology actually come that far?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ritual?” Hyunjin scoffed as he pressed on the app. “Don’t mind if I do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The app was nothing Hyunjin had expected. Having figured it would be pages of spells or scriptures or ancient texts he was quite surprised instead to find dozens of different listings for various types of food. Unbeknownst to him it was actually a new type of food delivery app.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He clicked through several of the dishes, his mouth salivating slightly as he looked over all the delicious meals presented to him. Licking his lips, he continued pressing random buttons until he eventually became bored of looking at</span>
  <em>
    <span> just pictures</span>
  </em>
  <span> of food that were only serving to make him hungry. He frustratedly tossed the phone back on the couch and it let out a loud </span>
  <em>
    <span>PING</span>
  </em>
  <span> as it bounced across the cushions. But Hyunjin paid it no mind, instead his gaze fell on the bowl of cat kibble sitting on the other side of the room as his face contorted into a displeased scowl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Around twenty minutes later the guest house intercom suddenly let out a loud buzz, quickly pulling Hyunjin out of his TV watching-induced stupor. He scrambled to his feet and over to the dusty old intercom, blood rushing from his head as he had gotten up far too quickly causing him to be hit with a wave of dizziness. Giving his head a bit of a shake, he fumbled with the buttons before finally figuring out how to answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uhhh… hello?” He asked, pressing down on the speaker button while leaning in entirely too close to the intercom speaker causing a brief yet painful squeal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi I’m here with the items you Ritualed!” A friendly voice replied from the other side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin squinted at the small screen, a human who appeared to be some sort of delivery driver in a teal uniform was standing at the front gate holding a large bag of… something. He thought it strange but Minho had said to pick up any deliveries so maybe this is what he was talking about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh okay, be right there.” Hyunjin replied, quickly slipping on some shoes and running out to meet them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Hyunjin pulled open the large gate door, the delivery driver quickly handed him the items.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here are your three orders of tonkatsu! Thanks for using Ritual! Enjoy!” He said happily before hopping back onto his scooter and zipping off down the street.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin just stood there looking at the large plastic bag of food in his hands. The smell was absolutely intoxicating and Hyunjin’s stomach let out a loud grumble. Human food beat out cat food any day of the year. He quickly closed the gate and scurried back inside the house to inspect the delicious contents of the mysterious delivery. When he opened it he saw that the man had been telling the truth and it really was three entire servings of savoury breaded pork cutlet. The human hadn’t even asked for payment. Without hesitation Hyunjin immediately devoured one of the cutlets before he was suddenly struck with a wave of brilliance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin ran back into the living room to grab Minho’s phone, quickly bringing up the Ritual app once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I use this app to summon humans to bring me food?” Hyunjin spoke inquisitively as he began scrolling through the menu items once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After pressing a couple more buttons the familiar </span>
  <em>
    <span>PING</span>
  </em>
  <span> from before rang out and he went back to devouring the two remaining tonkatsu meals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Like clockwork, fifteen minutes later another delivery driver appeared at the gate with yet another bag of food and never once asking for any form of payment or anything in return. This time Hyunjin gleefully unboxed an extra large order of cheese ddukbokki.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This quickly led to a trend of pressing a couple buttons every fifteen or twenty minutes and more and more food arriving at the door with not a single question asked much to Hyunjin’s growing delight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several hours later Minho finally returned home but as soon as he stepped in the front door something immediately seemed off. As he was kicking off his shoes he heard a loud groan come from the living room. He took a couple steps into the house and noticed some trash scattered on the floor. As he picked it up he couldn’t help but be a little puzzled as to why there was an empty fried chicken box in the middle of the hall. Another step revealed a couple discarded napkins and a styrofoam box. Minho cautiously followed the growing trail of trash until he entered the living room where Hyunjin lay splayed on the couch surrounded by dozens of discarded bags and boxes while holding onto his bulging stomach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin what is all this?! What the hell did you do?” Minho gasped, taking in all of the trash and half-eaten food scattered about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho! I was able to summon humans to do my bidding!” Hyunjin proclaimed proudly before letting out another groan in discomfort, having eaten entirely too much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” Minho uttered in complete disbelief, his jaw on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I summoned a whole bunch of humans! And they all brought me offerings of delicious food!” Hyunjin said as he struggled to push himself up into a sitting position, crumbs falling from his shirt onto the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>summoned</span>
  </em>
  <span> them?!” Minho was starting to panic a little thinking about what sort of unknown powers Hyunjin might actually possess.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah I used that Ritual app on your phone.” Hyunjin smirked as he wiped a stray spot of sweet and sour sauce from his bottom lip. “Who knew using human magic was so </span>
  <em>
    <span>easy</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho’s eyes immediately went wild as Hyunjin’s words sunk in and he noticed his phone sitting nearby. Making a mad dash for the couch, he scooped up his phone and immediately opened up his banking app to see that Hyunjin had ordered 480,000 won (approximately $440) worth of delivery food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Four hundred and eighty thou—” Minho slowly dragged his hand down his face, not being able to fully process the number of transactions that had just been charged to his account.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He began angrily pacing back and forth, trying to form any sort of sentence that wasn’t entirely composed of violent expletives.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin how the fuck are we going to pay for this?!” Minho exclaimed, turning back to face him, his eyes absolutely blazing in anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. They didn’t ask for any payment.” Hyunjin said with a dismissive wave of his hand and a pleased huff. “They finally treated me like the god they know I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No you absolute idiot! It’s a food delivery app! It has my credit card information in it! You were charging </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> the entire time!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Oh.” Hyunjin’s face suddenly drained of colour at the realization at what he had done as Minho loomed darkly over him. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho continued to approach, head hung low, phone clenched tightly in one hand as a sinister-looking magical circle began to swirl menacingly around the other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill</span>
  </em>
  <span> you.” Minho growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The atmosphere of the room began to quickly darken.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho let’s be rational here…” Hyunjin said with a nervous laugh as he anxiously pushed himself up against the back of the couch. “Minho—Minho please…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a blood curdling scream as Minho lunged forward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that’s why Minho’s phone now has a demon talisman constantly affixed inside the case so that neither me nor Hyunjin are ever allowed to touch it.” Jisung proudly explained to Felix. “Hyunjin got his ass beat </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> good that night. Crazy right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix just stood there blinking in mild surprise, holding his own cell phone loosely in his hand. He had only asked if Jisung had wanted to order some delivery food as a treat as they were the only ones at the guest house that night before Jisung had gone into a long rambling tangent about one of Hyunjin’s many past escapades.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, makes sense I guess?” Felix responded casually. “So, uh, did you want me to order a pizza or not?”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Some gory necromancer stuff happens in the beginning of the chapter as a warning. If you wish to skip the present resurrection of Dori, just skip to "18 months earlier" in the story and you'll still get the full backstory.</p><p>Also in the context of this story a "stray" is basically a demon that has been summoned either by accident or on purpose through illegal means that has taken over a human host's body and soul. So while the being is classified as a demon, the body is still wholly or at least partially human until the demon is able to gain full control. They also are comparatively weaker than normal demons summoned to be familiars due to their lingering human bodies.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Clear the living room, I’m bringing Dori back.” Minho proclaimed in a stern tone as he stalked into the living room, rolling up his sleeves as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” Hyunjin blurted out, fumbling the Switch in his hands as he sat stark upright on the couch. “Are you really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix also suddenly perked up, looking frantically between Hyunjin and Minho who was now pacing the room, muttering to himself while cracking his knuckles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What does he mean by that?” Felix whispered to Hyunjin, eyes wide in a mix of anticipation and mild dread.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dori is Minho’s third familiar.” Hyunjin explained as he cautiously got up from the couch, never once taking his eyes off Minho as he carefully ushered Felix away with him to the safety of the nearby hallway. “He had been misbehaving so I guess you could say so Minho—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Murdered him.” Jisung interrupted, having suddenly appeared in the doorway behind them causing both Hyunjin and Felix to flinch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did not murder him!” Minho scoffed, momentarily stopping his pacing to glare over his shoulder at Jisung. “I just sent him away for a little while as he gets the hang of things… and to teach him an important lesson.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix stood in the hall, blinking in disbelief. Part of him was absolutely terrified and wanted to run away right then again but another part of him was desperately curious to see the true extent of Minho’s abilities. They had been living under the same roof for months already yet Felix had yet to actually witness Minho use </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> sort of magic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho finally stopped his pacing and gave his neck a hard crick to both sides.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s starting.” Jisung whispered excitedly as the room grew darker and darker until all of the lights in the house had turned off by themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho began reciting some sort of complex-sounding incantation under his breath as a glowing red magic circle appeared at his feet. As Minho’s powers increased, a sort of magical wind began to swirl around the room and Hyunjin gently pulled Felix back a couple steps and out of harm’s way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Throughout the entire ordeal, Minho’s expression didn’t waver, even when the swirling winds became so intense it caused the other three watching to cower away, shielding themselves away from the small magical particulates that had been picked up in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then everything just stopped, the room becoming eerily silent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The magic circle at Minho’s feet was glowing as strongly as ever as he took a couple steps backwards until he had completely removed himself from it. As soon as his body had left the magic barrier the circle contained at its edges, a deep red liquid began seeping up through the floor at a startling rate, quickly filling in the insignias of the circle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is that? Wait, is that blood?!” Felix blurted out in a panic before quickly getting shushed by Jisung.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the pool of blood increased in size, soon pieces of what appeared to be flesh and bones also began materializing with grotesque squelching sounds, slowly stitching themselves together until the remnants of a spine and ribcage started to become evident within the mess.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin had been paying close attention to Felix’s reaction, suddenly noticing how disturbed he appeared as he watched on in horror. He gently pulled Felix back against him, quickly covering his eyes with his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This part might get a little gruesome.” Hyunjin whispered. “But don’t worry, he will feel no pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix could only muster a small whimper, desperately searching for Hyunjin’s other free hand at his side. Felix’s hands were trembling but as soon as he located Hyunjin’s warm hand he clung tightly to it out of sheer desperation to find any sort of feeling of safety in that moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the body in front of them continued to reassemble itself piece by bloody piece, the horrific noises it emitted were easily the thing of nightmares. Felix pressed himself tightly against Hyunjin, trying his best to block out the terrifying gasping and wheezing sounds as the body found its lungs and vocal cords once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After another ten or so minutes the room went quiet one more and the lights slowly flickered back on as Hyunjin lowered his hand from Felix’s eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-is it over?” Felix stuttered out, having turned ghostly pale and still not daring to raise his gaze off his floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s over.” Minho responded confidently with a tired sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Felix looked up, the faint outlines of the magic circle were still fading but there in the center lay a young man, staring wide-eyed up at the ceiling, his chest was heaving as if he were still trying to catch his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Normally it’s not so, uh, intense.” Jisung muttered out. “It’s just the whole, uh, lacking of a body thing. Minho had to conjure a new one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh huh.” Felix just responded in an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice, despondently nodding as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Changbin?” Minho called out, squatting down at the edge of the circle and giving the man’s shoulder a prod. “Hey. Changbin. Time to wake up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Changbin?” Felix asked, looking up at Hyunjin for an answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dori’s former human name.” Hyunjin replied quietly as the young man slowly picked himself up off the ground, every single one of his joints seemingly cracking loudly as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck you Minho.” Changbin breathed angrily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Glad to see you too.” Minho replied with a proud smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[18 months earlier]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was late at night and Minho and Hyunjin were coming back from a trip to the grocery store. The power had unfortunately gone out the day before causing everything in Minho’s tiny apartment fridge to spoil. As soon as the power had finally come back they had sprinted to reach the store before it closed. Their arms were weighed down with several bags of frozen foods and fresh produce as they bickered back and forth on the way home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like I’ve said a million times before, if you want to stay in your human form you have to do your share of the chores” Minho rambled off as Hyunjin rolled his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” A gruff voice suddenly called from down one of the dark backstreets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Minho could take another step or ever respond to the voice, a figure had leapt from the shadow and placing a tight grip on the front of his shirt, had pulled Minho towards a nearby alley. Minho immediately dropped the groceries he was carrying, the bag’s contents scattering across the ground at Hyunjin’s feet. The assailant roughly pushed Minho up against the stone and plaster wall of a nearby house, twisting their arm to put pressure across Minho’s throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You! Give me all your money!” They barked at Minho, drawing a knife from their pocket while holding it dangerously close to Minho’s abdomen. “And you!” He motioned to Hyunjin. “Don’t you dare move an inch or I’ll gut him right here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho didn’t reply, nor did he move, he merely looked over the person who had chosen to attack him so brazenly. They were much shorter than him and were evidently not used to this sort of situation as the hand that was holding the knife was trembling ever so slightly. Minho looked back to the mouth of the alley where Hyunjin stood silently, grocery bags clutched tightly at his sides and eyes glowing a fierce red just waiting for Minho to give him any sort of signal. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you, deaf? I said give me all your money!” The young man snarled in a gravelly voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho slowly turned his eyes back on his assailant, noticing the single glowing red eye from beneath the young man’s fringe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s up with your eye?” Minho asked casually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up!” He snapped, letting go of Minho and quickly covering his red eye with the palm of his hand while still dangerously brandishing the knife in the other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin?” Minho called in an eerily calm tone. “Mind taking care of this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before the sound of the grocery bags hitting the pavement had reached their ears, Hyunjin had moved, immediately overpowering the attacker while lodging his shoulder straight against his ribcage. He went tumbling back onto the uneven pavement, knife flying from his grip as Hyunjin quickly kicked it away and out of reach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Want me to kill him?” Hyunjin asked in a sinister tone, eyes still glowing fiercely as he loomed over the young man who was desperately trying to right himself beneath him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, that won’t be necessary… this time.” Minho replied calmly, patting out the wrinkles that were left on his shirt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fucking witches.” The assailant cursed as he scrambled to his feet, making his escape down a dark nearby alley.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a long sigh and turned back to Minho who simply just motioned to the spilled groceries at the mouth of the alley.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You won’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> make me kill anyone, right?” Hyunjin asked in a small voice as he bent down to pick up the items that had spilled out of the shopping bags.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah.” Minho replied with a scrunch of his nose. “But it works wonders scaring off punk ass kids like that. I doubt we’ll run into him again anytime soon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Only a couple days later Hyunjin was heading back from the store once more, arms weighed down with grocery bags as he grumbled along. But he was alone this time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t eat all the food Hyunjin.” Hyunjin muttered to himself in an agitated mocking tone. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I can’t believe he’s actually making me do his errands </span>
  <em>
    <span>for</span>
  </em>
  <span> him now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin pulled one of the individually wrapped sausages out of a shopping bag, ripping open the packaging with his fangs and angrily taking a bite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If he’s going to treat me like a servant I at least deserve a snack for my efforts.” Hyunjin continued to mutter as he scarfed down the rest of the sausage, stuffing the wrapper back in the bag.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he continued to walk the skies began to darken overhead and it wasn’t long before it had started to drizzle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great.” Hyunjin grumbled with an eyeroll, having nothing to shield himself from the rain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quickened his pace as his hair and t-shirt became increasingly more damp as he went. He hadn’t gotten far before he suddenly heard a scream come from a nearby alleyway and his senses immediately went on red alert as his eyes scanned the dark alley for the sound of the noise. He could hear footsteps approaching at a sprint and he sensed the presence of something dark. Hyunjin’s defense mechanism immediately kicked in, causing him to drop the bags at his feet and brace himself to encounter whatever was approaching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it was not at all what he was expecting as a young man came sprinting out of the alley and onto the main road, black hoodie pulled tightly over his head. Hyunjin’s eyes went wild when he caught a brief glimpse of the young man’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You!” He yelled, his eyes turning bright red in anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was the same person who had tried to mug Minho only a couple nights before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit.” The young man cursed, immediately recognizing Hyunjin from the previous scuffle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The young man skidded to a stop on the wet pavement only a couple feet in front of Hyunjin and quickly scrambled to get his bearings, retreating back down another side alley that had branched off the first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! Get back here!” Hyunjin yelled, immediately chasing after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin couldn’t believe how inhumanly fast this person was but ultimately he was much faster and within a minute he had overtaken him, roughly tackling him to the ground. Hyunjin scuffled with him for a minute or so as he desperately tried to get away. In a last resort the man pulled out a small knife, wildly slashing at Hyunjin. Hyunjin was able to dodge the strikes with ease but when the sound of sirens in the distance momentarily distracted him he was distracted just enough that the young man was able to get one good swing in, slicing across Hyunjin’s bicep. Hyunjin hissed in pain as he grasped at his sleeve and saw the blood seeping into the wet fabric.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s it! You’re dead!” Hyunjin growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin was quick to knock the young man to the ground once more, pinning him on his back while sitting squarely on his chest. He had a crushing grip on the young man’s wrists in an attempt to get him to drop the knife but he was a lot stronger than Hyunjin had anticipated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only then that Hyunjin noticed something peculiar about the man: his one red eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait… you’re a stray?” Hyunjin asked, brows furrowing in confusion as his focus was placed solely on the eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like hell I am!” The young man spat back. “Get off me you demon trash!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin gritted his teeth and pushed his wet hair out of his face. He noticed the front pocket of the man’s hoodie bulging and Hyunjin thrust his hand inside expecting to find more weapons. Instead, when he pulled it out he had a fistful of 50,000 won notes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not me who’s trash.” Hyunjin growled, brandishing the wad of cash at him before throwing it back at the thief as it scattered across his chest, a couple notes blowing into the nearby puddles. “Stealing from humans? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just then a flurry of footsteps could be heard approaching and the young man’s temperament immediately changed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If I’m going down, you’re going down with me.” He said with a devilish smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His one eye flickered red for a second before he moved too fast for Hyunjin to counteract. In a series of swift motions, the young man had taken hold of Hyunjin’s hand, forcing it onto the handle of the blade and then forcing it into his own shoulder. He let out at wail in pain as Hyunjin’s eyes went wide in surprise at this peculiar action.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Somebody help!” The young man cried out. “He’s trying to kill me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” Hyunjin gasped out, trying to let go of the knife but the young man prevented him from doing so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he looked over his shoulder he saw several police officers surrounding them, weapons drawn and aimed straight at him. Before Hyunjin could get a single word out he felt a searing pain in his back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had been tased.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His surroundings quickly faded out of focus as he slumped over onto his side on the damp pavement and everything went dark around him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not long after Hyunjin woke up, his head was pounding, his entire body ached and more shockingly his hands were handcuffed in front of him. Hyunjin groggily pushed himself up into a sitting position on the bench he had been laying on as his eyesight slowly came back into focus. When he realized he was in a prison cell he cursed under his breath knowing Minho was probably going to kill him over this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin quickly surveyed the spacing of the cell bars, looking for any means of escape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too easy.” He muttered with a smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However when he attempted to shift into his feline form he quickly realized he was not able to do so. He tried time and time again but nothing happened. Something was preventing him from using any of his powers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you really that stupid?” A familiar voice scoffed from nearby. “As if they’re just going to let you walk out of here in your familiar form. Give up. It’s no use.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin quickly looked over his shoulder to see the young man from before in an adjacent cell, his shoulder was bandaged up and he was peering out from beneath his hood at Hyunjin with a devilish smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re the reason I’m locked up in here aren’t you.” Hyunjin hissed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The young man gave a laugh while merely shrugging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin gritted his teeth in anger quickly getting to his feet, fire burning in his eyes. “Why you—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t try anything stupid. You’re lucky that ahjumma I lifted the money from saw you chase me down.” The young man scoffed. “But at least I can get you back for assault with a weapon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He motioned to his injured, bloody shoulder with a mocking pout.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? You did that to yourself!” Hyunjin blurted out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why on earth would I </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span> want to stab myself?” He replied in a passive aggressive tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out another angry huff and slumped back down on the bench in frustration knowing that it would be difficult to convince anyone that someone did in fact purposely stab themselves during a scuffle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seo Changbin?” An officer called before the young man was removed from his cell for questioning, giving Hyunjin one last smug look as he passed by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Changbin.” Hyunjin repeated with a scowl. “I won’t forget that name that’s for sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin laid back on the small bench and waited for what felt like an eternity before another officer came to gather information from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, you say you’re a familiar?” The officer asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. I already told you. My, uh, master is Lee Minho. I can give you his contact information.” Hyunjin replied, already getting frustrated with the officer’s questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s no Hwang Hyunjin registered in our system as a familiar.” The officer continued, looking at Hyunjin with raised eyebrows to insinuate they thought he wasn’t telling the truth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin slowly dragged his hands down his face in agitation as he flopped back on the bench once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just call him, he will clear things up.” Hyunjin grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The officer let out a long sign before noting something down and walking out of sight. Around an hour or so later the door opened and in walked Minho looking like he was about to murder Hyunjin right then and there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho!” Hyunjin called out, scrambling to his feet and running to the cell bars.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I swear to god Hyunjin—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I swear anything they told you isn’t true!” Hyunjin blurted out. “It’s that same asshole that tried to mug you last week! His name is Seo Changbin. I ran into him again on the way home as he was trying to mug someone else. I tried to stop him and now he’s saying I stabbed him!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Did you</span>
  </em>
  <span> stab him?” Minho asked in a critical tone as he stood in front of the cell, arms crossed in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course not! He stabbed himself in an attempt to drag me down with him!” Hyunjin retorted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gutsy.” Minho scoffed as he looked over at Changbin slumped in the other cell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho, tell them I’m innocent! Get me out of here!” Hyunjin begged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, alright.” Minho sighed. “I’ll take care of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho walked over to the desk of the police officer in charge of the case to try and sort things out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this individual your familiar?” The officer asked, looking over at Hyunjin sitting cross-legged in the cell behind them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin? Yeah.” Minho quickly replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The police officer entered something into their computer and gave a bit of a frown.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This says only one familiar is registered under the name Lee Minho and the name does not match that of the person in the cell over there.” The officer replied, looking up at Minho with a raised eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well, he’s my second familiar. I just hadn’t gotten around to registering him yet.” Minho replied, mildly agitated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone like you has </span>
  <em>
    <span>two</span>
  </em>
  <span> familiars?” The officer scoffed as they began to type more into the computer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that an issue?” Minho replied coldly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If found guilty you’ll be forced to pay a fine of up to 500,000 won for inability to control a familiar.” The officer continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin would never do anything like you say he did.” Minho asserted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We shall see what a judge has to say about that.” The officer muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the officer continued filling out information on the computer they fell silent as they began digging through Minho’s own profile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm well isn’t that interesting. It says here that you never even finished your formal education at any sort of magic academy. But it says you’re registered as a Class 1 magic user? With no formal education? Right and I’m chief of police.” The police officer commented sarcastically. “Wait there’s a note on your file as well… It says you were investigated over the death of a fellow student and that you were subsequently expelled...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The officer turned away from the screen to face Minho looking for any sort of response. Minho’s head was hung low but his eyes had become fierce as he looked up at the police officer from under his furrowed brows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You got nothing to say about that?” The police officer pressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Minho replied coldly, clenching his fists at his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So can you prove that he’s your familiar?” The police officer continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do magic imprint tracing if you have to, I don’t care. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He’s my familiar</span>
  </em>
  <span>. And he wouldn’t hurt someone, human or otherwise, unprovoked.” Minho replied, his tone getting dark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Very well.” The police officer said with a sigh as they motioned for another officer to take over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After multiple phone calls and several lengthy magic procedures, it was eventually proven that Hyunjin was in fact Minho’s familiar and had formed a pact with him. Once that was cleared up and Hyunjin was formally registered, Hyunjin was released into Minho’s care. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>However in a strange turn of events, Changbin’s assault charges against Hyunjin ended up being completely thrown out when it was determined he was an unregistered demon and was seen as an unfavourable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you are not registered to a witch as a familiar you will unfortunately have to be banished.” The police officer explained to Changbin in a tired tone while reading over the results of the magic screenings that had been conducted upon his booking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?! For petty theft?! But I’m human!” Changbin retorted, getting to his feet and grabbing onto the cell bars.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay can you give us the name of any family members? An address that you live at? Anything?” The officer pressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin wracked his brain but could not come up with a single morsel of information apart from his own name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry but we have no living human record of you, nor are you listed as a familiar and our supernatural indicators show you are definitely not human.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There must be some sort of mistake!” Changbin replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’ve never been wrong before.” The officer replied. “We will schedule one of the local coven elders to banish you come sunrise.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But that’s basically an execution!” Changbin retorted, his voice cracking slightly in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry but unregistered, illegally summoned demons are not permitted. Especially not those with your track record.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I’m not a demon! I’m a human!” Changbin cried out as he slumped down on the cell bench in defeat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin and Minho had overheard the entire ordeal as Minho was signing off on the paperwork for Hyunjin’s release but Minho was much less concerned about what was going on than Hyunjin. Hyunjin’s attention on the other hand had become fixated on the scene nearby.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on Hyunjin, let’s go.” Minho replied coldly as he headed for the door to the police station.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin looked back over at his shoulder at Changbin sitting alone and despondent in the cell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait. Can’t you do something?” Hyunjin asked, grabbing onto Minho’s sleeve to stop him. “If he’s not registered as a familiar he’ll be banished...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you really suggesting I take on some kid who attempted to stab me last week as another familiar?” Minho replied in a calm tone that was dripping with sarcasm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please Minho.” Hyunjin begged. “He’s a stray... most likely was once human but lost his soul to a demon in an illegal summon. He’s an outcast. No one else will accept him. As a necromancer you can probably relate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How dare you try to play off my own struggles.” Minho replied apathetically with a sigh as he looked over Hyunjin’s shoulder at Changbin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please.” Hyunjin said with a small pout. “Besides, why not show those cops just how powerful you really are?” Hyunjin’s lips slowly curled up into a devilish smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho carefully considered Hyunjin’s words before pushing past him to come face to face with Changbin for the first time since the altercation in the alley.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey. You.” Minho called, walking up to the bars of Changbin’s cell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin slowly looked up and scowled. “What do </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To save your life.” Minho responded dryly. “Now you need to make up your mind quickly; become my familiar right now or get banished tomorrow morning.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Changbin scoffed in confusion and disbelief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I’m—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re not human. At least not anymore. Have you not noticed your own eye? Now choose fast. I can’t give you much but I can at least give you a life off the streets.” Minho explained sternly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin looked down at the floor as he weighed his options before looking up between Hyunjin and Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not gonna be a slave to some low level witch like this pushover.” Changbin retorted, glaring at Hyunjin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Low level? Hardly. And that’s not what a familiar is, you idiot.” Minho replied dryly, rolling his eyes. “We enter into a mutual agreement. I will be indebted to you as much as you will be indebted to me. And if what Hyunjin says is true you really have no other choice, no one else is going to make a pact with a stray. So it’s up to you; come with me or cease to exist in approximately twelve hours’ time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin loudly sucked his teeth as he internally debated himself over Minho’s offer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, what do I gotta do?” Changbin finally responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just say yes.” Minho replied, extending a hand through the bars of the cell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The process was so fast and discreet that if a passerby had not been watching intently they might not have even noticed the magic circle appear. Even Hyunjin was blown away by how efficient Minho was becoming with every new pact. After the ritual to make Changbin his familiar was complete Minho closed his eyes briefly and gave his head a slight shake, looking mildly fatigued from the process while Changbin was still fixated on the tingling sensation lingering in his fingertips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just then a police officer passed by carrying a stack of files.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re still here? Was there something else you needed?” The officer scoffed looking between Minho, Hyunjin and Changbin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, actually there is.” Minho replied. “I’d like to formally register a third familiar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s so tiny and fluffy and cute.” Hyunjin cooed as they made their way home from the police station, cradling a small black kitten in his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah well he better not cause anymore trouble or I’ll have both your asses.” Minho replied in a tired voice, his hands buried deep in his pockets. “You’re lucky they threw out the entire case as just a spat between familiars. I’ll have to go apologize to that ahjumma though since Changbin’s past actions are now my responsibility as well. What a pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tiny kitten let out a small mew and Minho’s eyes reluctantly shifted over to look at it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn it.” Minho cursed under his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could feel his heart quickly melting for the small critter but he tried his best to keep his composure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you gonna name him?” Hyunjin asked as he scratched the kitten’s head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dori.” Minho replied without missing a beat.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry if there are an unnecessary number of spelling and/or grammatical mistakes in this chapter. My brain is tired and even after 2 hours of editing what is English?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Tags have been updated.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The events immediately after the resurrection were somewhat of a bit of a blur.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seeing that Changbin was alive and responsive once more, Minho had backed off as Hyunjin and Jisung excitedly ran over to him and they all began loudly bickering amongst themselves. Felix stood nervously in the doorway to the hall, peering around the corner, eyes still wide in shock as he nervously looked on. Minho knew it must have been a lot for Felix to witness. He knew he should probably have a talk with him about it to make sure he was actually okay or if he might want a quick memory charm but before he could even finish his train of thought, Minho’s attention was quickly pulled back to his three familiars in the middle of the room as their argument ramped up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up and at least put on some damn clothes!” Hyunjin yelled as he grabbed a thick blanket off the couch and tossed it over Changbin who immediately began to flounder under the mass of fabric that had quickly drowned him.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe I would if I knew where you hid my damn clothes!” Changbin spat back, aggressively flipping the blanket off of his head as his one eye glowed bright red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin quickly turned on his heels and disappeared into the hallway, moments later coming back with a dust-covered cardboard box that had been sitting in the hall closet for months.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here.” He said as he tossed the box at Changbin’s feet and a cloud of dust rose into the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin began to curse out Hyunjin under his breath while letting out a flurry of sneezes as Jisung let out a hyena-like cackle at the scenario unfolding in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could you at least treat my possessions with some damn respect?!” Changbin huffed before turning to Jisung. “And what the hell are</span>
  <em>
    <span> you</span>
  </em>
  <span> laughing at?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung quickly raised his hands in the air in surrender and backed off, leaving Changbin and Hyunjin to their fight. Angrily wrapping the blanket around himself like a makeshift robe, Changbin struggled to pull himself to his feet only to continue cursing at Hyunjin. Hyunjin was several inches taller than him and was just staring down at him smugly with his arms crossed. Hyunjin’s eyes flickered red for only a millisecond before Changbin was overwhelmed with another fit of sneezes, the last of which being so powerful that he launched himself backwards and inadvertently shifted forms. In Changbin’s place, a tiny black kitten clawed its way out from underneath the blanket with a perturbed mew as both Hyunjin and Jisung burst into a fit of laughter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho couldn’t help but let out a small laugh and crack a smile at his familiars’ over dramatic antics. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately it wasn’t long until his mood took a nosedive. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was but something suddenly felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>off</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Before he knew it, a extremely dark and foreboding feeling began to creep up on him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not again. Not now.” Minho muttered under his breath, his eyes darting around the room looking for any visible sign of trouble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In mere seconds, a deafeningly shrill ringing noise quickly overwhelmed him as his field of vision violently began to deteriorate. He could still make out the forms of the others arguing in front of him but all he could hear was the piercing sound that had overtaken his eardrums. Minho gave his head an aggressive shake, stiffly pounding his forehead with the palm of his hand as if trying to knock the sound from his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somehow it seemed to work but he knew that relief would unfortunately be short lived. With several heavy blinks his eyesight had returned to normal and the ambient noise from his surroundings quickly drowned out the ringing once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knew he had to remove himself and fast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Minho tried to regain his bearings, he was suddenly overcome with a massive headache. An intense jolt of pain shot through his skull almost as if an ice pick had been lodged in his eye socket. He quickly turned his back to the others as he pressed the palm of his hand against his eye, inhaling sharply as he tried to stave off the pain. The moment he had flinched, Jisung had managed to pick up on the change in energy, immediately falling silent as he looked over at Minho in concern. Pushing past Hyunjin as he was doting on the small kitten, Jisung circled around Minho, bending down slightly in an attempt to meet his strained gaze.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You alright?” Jisung asked in an uncharacteristically calm voice, trying his best to survey Minho’s current physical condition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho tried to answer but the pain was quickly becoming overwhelming. His face contorted as he tried his best to keep any sort of composure while the throbbing in his temples intensified with every passing second.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s happening again, isn’t it.” Jisung replied, eyes anxiously flitting between Minho and the others while trying not to draw too much attention to the situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright I’m gonna give you 30 seconds. You know what to do.” Jisung said as if this was a common occurrence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho nodded once more as Jisung pressed his forehead against Minho’s and forcefully placed his hand on the back of Minho’s neck, his eyes flickering red momentarily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was like a shot of adrenaline suddenly surged through his body and Minho let out a loud gasp, unintentionally alerting the others. As the others turned to look at him, Minho quickly straightened his posture as if nothing was wrong, the pain momentarily being kept at bay by whatever Jisung had done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You okay?” Hyunjin asked with a blank stare as he slowly got to his feet, cradling an angry Dori in his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine. I’m fine.” Minho rebuffed as he ran his fingers anxiously through his hair. “Actually, this sort of took a lot out of me so I think I’m going to turn in early, alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Uh, okay.” Hyunjin replied with a shrug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin, look after Dori.” Minho instructed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What am I? His babysitter?” Hyunjin scoffed with a roll of his eyes as Jisung anxiously shook his head just out of Minho’s line of eyesight. “I mean, uh, fine. But I’m not going to be happy about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to be disturbed so you two can choose to either take the living room or one of the spare bedrooms upstairs for the night. And Felix…” Minho hesitated as he looked over Felix, noticing his hands were balled into fists at his side and he was still shaking ever so slightly. “Felix, I’m sorry you had to see all that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s… it’s okay.” Felix replied in a voice barely above a whisper, quickly averting eye contact. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll talk more in the morning, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix just nodded, eyes still fixed on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho motioned for Jisung to follow him and the two of them quickly disappeared back into Minho’s bedroom without another word.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho had barely taken a few steps into the room before crumpling down onto his knees, the pain having returned and was now absolutely unbearable. Jisung was quick to close the door behind him as Minho doubled over, pressing on his temples while letting out a frustrated groan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung’s eyes were momentarily drawn to the ceiling as the single light in the room began to flicker.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You went too far didn’t you.” Jisung said calmly as he squatted down, attention now solely focused on Minho. “You let it breach the barrier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Minho replied curtly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think you can shut it out?” Jisung asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m trying.” Minho said as he gritted his teeth. “Fuck I forgot how strong it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, before you burst a blood vessel, let me take over.” Jisung offered, raising up his hands on either side of Minho’s head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I’ve got this.” Minho continued to grit out, swatting Jisung’s hands away despite being nearly completely doubled over in pain by this point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho suddenly noticed something dark drip onto the floor beneath him. His eyes went wide as he reached up and dabbed his nose, his finger coming away covered in blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nosebleed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck.” Minho cursed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright that’s enough masochism from you.” Jisung said in an assertive manner as he quickly shoved Minho’s hands away, placing the palms of his own hands against the sides of Minho’s head, his eyes glowing bright red in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck o—ff...” Minho started to say with a sarcastic huff at the masochism comment but he was barely able to finish his sentence before his eyes began to glaze over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s it. Just rest.” Jisung said quietly as the tension began to leave Minho’s body and a blank expression spread across his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the seconds ticked by, Minho’s eyelids became heavier and heavier until he was overcome by sleep, Jisung helping him down gently as he slowly slumped over onto his side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It would be another couple of minutes before Jisung finally removed his hands, his eyes returning to their normal colour as he let out a yawn. He carefully pulled Minho onto his bed and covered him up before sitting back and wiping his own brow with an exhausted sigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn that took a lot out of me.” Jisung commented with another yawn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a large stretch, Jisung flopped down beside the sleeping Minho, curling up next to him as what was common when he was in his cat form but he decided to stay in his human form for now just in case. It wasn’t long before Jisung drifted off to sleep as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho had no idea how much time had actually passed when he finally opened his eyes once more. It took a moment for his surroundings to come into focus… or more like lack of surroundings. He found himself lying alone on the floor of a dark room. No windows, no doors but somewhere a small light source shone into his otherwise pitch black surroundings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Except he wasn’t alone at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Necromancerrrr…” A gravelly low voice hissed from the shadows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only then that Minho realized he couldn’t move. He was experiencing sleep paralysis. This was a dream. But that didn’t mean that whatever it was couldn’t hurt him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He cursed under his breath as he kept thinking ‘wake up, wake up, wake up’ over and over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A sinister growl came from the far corner as a dark human-like creature with glowing red eyes slowly emerged from the shadows. It limped closer and closer, dragging one leg behind the other and leaving a bloody trail as it went. As the creature approached, its skin hung loosely from its body, looking more like a skeleton dripping with blood and tar than an actual physical being. It’s boney, claw-like hands were outstretched reaching towards Minho as it loomed closer, dripping a foul black substance onto Minho’s clothes before he felt the weight of it perched menacingly atop his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve missed you, necromancer.” It hissed in a fiendish tone, baring its fang-like teeth as it spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s unnerving blood-red gaze pierced right through Minho but all he could do was lay there, his body limp and heavy and completely unresponsive to his will.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!’ he kept repeating more and more desperately in his head to no avail. ‘Jisung! Get me out of here!’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho’s breathing became sharp and frantic as the creature placed their hands firmly around Minho’s neck, slowly digging their boney fingertips into his flesh. The hands began to tighten their grasp around his throat, crushing his windpipe until Minho could feel himself gasping for breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho!” A familiar voice called out in the darkness. “Minho wake up!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho awoke with a terrible startle, sitting bolt upright as he did so. A sweat had broken across his forehead and his chest heaved as he desperately tried to regain any sort of composure. He shakily reached up and tenderly felt at his neck where the demonic hands had gripped him but there was no mark left on his skin and he breathed a sigh of relief. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knew it had only been a dream. He knew he was safe now. But his heart was racing nonetheless.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung quietly sat beside him, having been jostled awake by Minho’s sudden distress. When he noticed Minho’s uneasy state he had immediately pulled him from the nightmare but he had no idea if he had been fast enough to prevent any harm. Minho slowly turned to look at Jisung, his heart sank at the devastated expression of concern Jisung wore on his face and Minho immediately pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you.” Minho breathed out, burying his face against Jisung’s chest as Jisung sat there, his eyes having gone wide in surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung gingerly wrapped his arms around Minho to comfort him, still unsure if he had done the right thing. It was evident that whatever had happened had really shaken up Minho as he was not normally so quick to show such a vulnerable or affectionate side of himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry I should have—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. Don’t say that. I’m fine now. You did exactly as you were supposed to.” Minho replied as he pulled away, taking Jisung’s face in his hands and squishing his cheeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung let out a small laugh followed by a big yawn as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and swatted Minho’s hands away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, well, I’ll try to not let it happen again. I promise.” Jisung replied in a tired voice with a slight smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung let out a long groan and flopped back down on the futon. Taking a hold of the fabric of the back of Minho’s shirt, Jisung slowly pulled him back down with him before tightly wrapping his arms and legs tightly around Minho’s body and happily nuzzling his cheek against Minho’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks again…” Minho sighed. “I just—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shhh just go back to sleep.” Jisung mumbled, sloppily placing his finger over Minho’s lips, his eyes already closed once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho gave a bit of a laugh as he removed Jisung’s hand and instead pulled him in closer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Jisung slept soundly beside him, Minho just stared up at the ceiling, the shock from the nightmare still warring on his nerves as he continued to try to calm himself down. Eventually he was able to let his mind wander and he slowly drifted off back to sleep.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The events that occurred after Dori’s resurrection played out much differently for each member of the guest house and Felix had evidently been more than a little shaken up by what had just happened. The sights and the sounds had been far too overwhelming for him and even with Hyunjin protecting him from the worst of it, he still couldn’t get the lingering remnants from his mind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blood. There was so much blood. He swore he could even still </span>
  <em>
    <span>smell</span>
  </em>
  <span> the blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And the sounds; the cracking of bones, the gasping of air… it was all too much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the others had been bickering in the middle of the living room Felix had remained pressed tightly against the doorway, lost in his thoughts while looking idly on, having completely dissociated from the entire scene in front of him. It wasn’t until Minho had spoken his name that he was able to bring himself back to reality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However once Minho and Jisung had made their exit leaving him alone with Hyunjin and Dori, he didn’t really know what to do with himself. All he could do was nervously watch on as Hyunjin teased the poor kitten wrapped up in his arms as it desperately tried to wriggle free of his grasp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw come on Dori, don’t be like that.” Hyunjin said with a laugh as he booped the kitten on the nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dori spat out a small hiss and swatted at Hyunjin’s fingers, raking his tiny claws against Hyunjin’s skin and managing to draw a small amount of blood. Hyunjin’s eyes began to glow a soft red and he gave his neck and agitated crick before grabbing Dori by the scruff of his neck, holding him up in front of him at eye level.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That wasn’t very nice.” Hyunjin scolded in a rather intimidating tone as the kitten let out an angry drawn-out mew. “Time to put you in baby jail.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He made his way over to the small pet crate that sat on the other side of the living room that had once been used as a jail of sorts for him as well. He gently placed Dori inside before closing and latching the door. No demon talismans were present so should Dori wish to escape he easily could but Hyunjin knew very well that Dori would be required to change back to his human form to do so and that he would be entirely too worn for at least the next few hours.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can stay in there until you calm down… or you finally become smart enough to figure out how to escape.” Hyunjin commented in a sarcastic tone, raising his bloody finger to his lips and sucking at the small wound Dori had inflicted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Hyunjin slowly stood back up he stretched his arms high above his head, letting out a loud yawn in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>exhausted</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He said in a sly tone as he spun around to face Felix. “Time to find the lap of a new victim to curl up on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normally that would have enticed some sort of reaction out of Felix but he only stood there in silence as if he hadn’t even heard him. When Hyunjin noticed how despondent Felix was being, his playful attitude immediately faded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you okay?” Hyunjin asked as he quickly approached Felix, who had his eyes focused solely on the floor. “Felix?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix quickly gave his head a shake and looked up at Hyunjin. “Hmm? Sorry?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I asked if you were okay?” Hyunjin repeated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, uh, I honestly don’t know…” Felix said as his voice trailed off. “I’ve never seen… heard… </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> like that before…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry too much about it, Minho is great at memory charms.” Hyunjin replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “If something is bothering you he can make it go away in the morning. No problem.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix just nodded while standing there, anxiously fiddling with his fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, uh, in the meantime can I, um, ask a favour of you?” Felix timidly asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin just stood there looking at him with raised eyebrows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I, um, maybe have a hug?” Felix continued, his eyes dropping to the floor once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin smirked, letting out a “</span>
  <em>
    <span>tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>” with a roll of his eyes before noticing Felix wasn’t budging and his expression completely dropped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Oh you’re serious? Oh!” Hyunjin was somewhat befuddled, not knowing exactly what to do as he anxiously scratched at the back of his neck. “I mean, sure? I guess?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry it’s just I don’t really have anyone else to ask and—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Felix could finish his thought Hyunjin had moved, pulling Felix into a tight hug. Almost instantly Felix could feel the intense heat that constantly radiated from Hyunjin and it immediately began to put him at ease as he gently placed his cheek against Hyunjin’s chest, timidly wrapping his arms around Hyunjin’s lower back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m only doing this because you were just severely traumatized.” Hyunjin grumbled playfully. “Next time it won’t be free. It’ll cost you at least two servings of galbi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks Hyunjin.” Felix said quietly with a small smile as he remained in Hyunjin’s arms for quite some time, the familiar not daring to let go until Felix was good and ready.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That night Felix had some of the worst sleep of his life. He had spent the majority of it tossing and turning to the point where not even Alfie wished to share the bed with him for fear of being squashed under a stray flailing limb. He woke up the next morning feeling even more exhausted than he had the night before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Minho finally emerged from his bedroom the next day, Felix ended up taking him up on the offer to perform a memory charm to alter his memories from the night before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m really sorry if I scared you.” Minho said as he gently brushed Felix’s shaggy fringe to the side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s fine I’ve just never witnessed anything like that before and it just… I… I’m not as strong as the rest of you.” Felix replied in a small voice with a nervous laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was more than any normal person should have to witness.” Minho replied in a tired voice. “I promise I will only take away the bad stuff. Alright? I won’t touch any other memories.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nodded, giving his lip a nervous bite and balling his fists in the loose fabric of his pyjama pants as he anxiously sat on the living room couch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As long as it allows me to get some restful sleep again.” He laughed. “I don’t think I got more than 5 minutes last night thanks to the constant nightmares.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nightmares? Like what sort of nightmares?” Minho asked in a rather concerned tone, taking a step back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um, just replaying the events over and over again. The sight of all the blood and the sounds of the bones cracking still sort of haunt me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing else? No monsters or ghosts or… nothing more sinister?” Minho pressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix shook his head. “Is that not sinister enough?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no I just wanted to make sure nothing else might be the cause.” Minho breathed out in relief. “It’s fine. I’ll perform the charm now, it’ll only take a moment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho approached Felix once more and gently rested the palm of his hand against his forehead, quickly muttering some sort of spell under his breath. In an instant Felix was left blinking in surprise as the spell had been so fast he wasn’t even sure if anything had actually happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that it?” Felix asked as Minho removed his hand, ruffling Felix’s hair back into place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yep. Easy as that.” Minho replied, cracking a smile. “What do you remember from last night?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I, uh, I remember…” Felix was struggling to recall the events that had occurred, his brows furrowed in contemplation. “I remember you creating a magic circle and then… and then… then Changbin appeared.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like it worked then.” Minho replied confidently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow! You really are something, huh.” Felix replied bashfully. “And here all this time I thought you barely had any powers because I never see you using them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, no point using magic if it’s not needed. I don’t need to wear out my familiars being an exhibitionist.” Minho laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix wasn’t entirely sure what Minho meant by that but he laughed along anyways.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was getting close to dinner time and Soonie and Doongie were curled up on the couch in the living room. Dori had disappeared and hadn’t been seen in the house since the night before and Minho had gone out to run some errands leaving Felix basically alone in the guest house. After not really being satisfied with the leftovers and scraps of kimchi and rice in the fridge, Felix had decided to fry up some eggs and cook his own dinner and maybe cook a little something extra for Minho for when he got home as a thank you for the charm earlier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For once the guest house actually seemed calm and Felix blissfully worked on his meal plan, happily humming a song to himself as he cooked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who the hell are you?” An unfamiliar voice grumbled from behind Felix causing him to jump slightly as he was flipping his eggs on the stovetop. “Don’t tell me he took on </span>
  <em>
    <span>another</span>
  </em>
  <span> familiar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix quickly turned off the burner and cautiously turned around to see Changbin sulk barefoot into the kitchen, making a beeline for the fridge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, I’m Felix.” Felix replied nervously, inching away from Changbin. “We technically met the other night? I, uh, I’m not a familiar if that’s what you mean. I live here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin stopped and gave Felix a glare as he looked him up and down while crowding into his space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t seem like his type anyways. You’re not broken enough.” Changbin continued to grumble, snapping his teeth at Felix in an act of intimidation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix flinched away, briefly closing his eyes as he brandished the spatula he clutched tightly in his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A-are you some kind of zombie?” Felix squeaked out, his deep voice going unnaturally high. “Please don’t hurt me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin let out a boisterous laugh as he slowly backed off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some kind of zombie.” Changbin repeated in a sarcastic huff. “Okay you’re funny, I’ll give you that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Felix slowly opened his eyes once more, Changbin was across the kitchen, attention focused entirely on the talismans plastered across the fridge. Seemingly unbothered by them, he made a grab for the door handle but immediately pulled away with a pained hiss and a flurry of expletives as soon as his skin made contact with the handle. He tried again and again, each time letting out a more and more agitated “ow” until the skin on his hand was nearly raw.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn that Minho.” Changbin cursed under his breath as he tried once more, actually being able to fling the door open this time despite the intense pain he inflicted upon himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix wasn’t sure if he was particularly strong or particularly stupid but Changbin acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary as be began to rummage through the fridge contents before settling on what looked like a tupperware of leftovers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mind getting that for me?” He motioned towards the fridge door as he back away and gave the container a curious sniff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix immediately closed the door behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um I don’t think you’re really supposed to—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix couldn’t even finish his sentence before Changbin had crowded into his space once more in an intimidating manner, looking over Felix even more intently this time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not supposed </span>
  <em>
    <span>to what</span>
  </em>
  <span><em>?</em>” Changbin sneered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gulped nervously as he noticed Changbin's unusual single red eye. He couldn’t even respond and merely babbled out a series of nonsense words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s what I thought.” Changbin huffed but before he could turn around Felix had been the one to move instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remembering the spray bottle of holy water Minho kept in the kitchen and had used on Hyunjin when Felix had first arrived at the guest house, Felix lunged for it, grabbing the small bottle that was currently situated near the sink and sprayed a blast of holy water directly into Changbin’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin spun around with a loud wail, covering his face and dropping the container of leftovers on the floor as sauce and noodles splattered everywhere. He was nearly doubled over, hurling expletives from the pain of the holy water as he had yet to experience anything like that before and it burned something awful. The skin on Changbin’s face was bright red and his one eye was glowing fiercely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alerted by the sudden commotion, Soonie had come scampering into the kitchen. He immediately shifted into Hyunjin the moment he saw Changbin angrily turn on Felix who was still nervously clutching the spray bottle while pressed back against the kitchen counter with nowhere to run. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Felix squeaked out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck?! Was that holy water?! I’m gonna fucking kill you.” Changbin growled as he lunged at Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin sprang into action, quickly pulling Changbin back before tackling him to the ground and pinning him on his back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get off me!” Changbin yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix!” Hyunjin called, motioning with his hand for Felix to toss him the spray bottle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix carefully tossed the bottle at Hyunjin who quickly caught it and brandished it directly in Changbin’s face once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Move an inch and you’ll get another dose.” Hyunjin replied coldly, his finger cocked on the trigger of the spray bottle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m really sorry! I panicked, I didn’t realize—” Felix began to say before Hyunjin cut him off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t apologize. He probably deserved it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin balked at Hyunjin’s comment. The kitchen was awkwardly silent for several painfully long minutes before Hyunjin slowly lowered the spray bottle again. Carefully he got up off Changbin and helped pull him back to his feet. Grabbing tightly onto Changbin’s wrist, Hyunjin pulled him in close, leaning down slightly so he would be out of earshot of Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen, if you harm a single hair on the fae boy’s head you’ll have to deal with me. Got it?” Hyunjin whispered coldly in Changbin’s ear, his eyes giving an intimidating flicker. “He’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> prey.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever.” Changbin grumbled as he yanked free of Hyunjin’s grasp before quickly shifting back into his tiny feline form and scurrying off down the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um… thanks?” Felix replied bashfully. “He got all up in my face and I was scared he was going to do something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin was only half paying attention as he looked at the food splattered across the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What a waste.” Hyunjin grumbled before looking back up at Felix. “Guess you better start cleaning it up before Minho gets back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin tossed the spray bottle back to Felix who fumbled it slightly before actually catching it. He let out a small sigh looking at the mess Hyunjin was referring to and went in search of the cleaning supplies. Hyunjin remained in the kitchen, watching over Felix as he cleaned just in case Changbin came back and tried to start trouble. He could have easily offered to help but instead he sat perched on a nearby chair lamenting the loss of a possible meal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“While I have you here… can I ask you something?” Felix asked as he finished wiping up the last remnants of sauce from the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin merely let out a bored-sounding hum in affirmation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what did Changbin do exactly to get himself…you know.” Felix dragged his thumb across his neck while giving an exaggerated frown.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out an overdramatic laugh. “Well, to put it bluntly he killed Jisung.” Hyunjin replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. You should have seen it.” Hyunjin huffed. “Changbin has only been a familiar for a very short period of time and has a lot of, er, issues. He got in a real bad fight with Jisung, even worse than the ones I get into and ended up killing him. Accidentally? On purpose? Who really knows. Minho puts up with a lot of our demon shit but harming Jisung is the line you can </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> cross with him. He is extremely protective of Jisung. I’m guessing it’s because he’s been with Minho the longest. I dunno. Meanwhile I’m pretty sure Minho has killed me at least 30 times by his own hands.” Hyunjin gave a shake of his head as he rolled his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait so you’ve had that… resurrecting thing? Done to you as well?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, no, no.” Hyunjin laughed. “I’ve only been dead for a few minutes here or there. Minho was so mad after the Jisung incident he literally obliterated Changbin. There was no body left to resurrect.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gave a nervous gulp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So maybe it </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a smart move pulling the holy water on him if he really was trying to test your limits.” Hyunjin scoffed. “Might be best to keep some on you from now on as well since he tends to hold grudges.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great.” Felix replied dejectedly with a sigh. “This is fine. Just another demon I have to deal with.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin hopped down from the chair and gave a stretch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways, I’m still exhausted and your scuffle interrupted my nap so I now have a lot of catching up to do.” Hyunjin whined. “Sleep with one eye open Felix.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, I guess.” Felix replied dejectedly as he tossed the dirty washcloth in the sink with a sigh.</span>
  <span>There definitely was never a dull moment in the guest house but Felix honestly didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to put up with it. If only someone who was actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>normal</span>
  </em>
  <span> could move in.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter wasn't exactly planned but since it was requested that I expand on the past Changbin/Jisung fight I decided to just write it. Surprise?</p><p>Warning: multiple murders, a stabbing, and a whole lot of blood is contained within this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>[8 months earlier]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite having moved into the guest house three months prior, the majority of its contents still remained in cardboard boxes. Minho had been spending most of his days trying to fix up the place so the only room that had been even remotely unpacked was his bedroom with a few pieces of leftover furniture inhabiting the living room. Every other day Minho would swap off with one or two of his familiars doing odd jobs around the house or the neighbourhood to either help bring the guest house back up to working order or earn some extra cash to help pay off his inherited debt. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>On this particular day, Minho had taken on a job helping to deliver coal briquettes to the elderly in the neighbourhood and the daily duties around the guest house fell on his three familiars. Jisung, Hyunjin and Changbin had drawn straws, Hyunjin being the lucky one to get the day off while the others were tasked with deep cleaning the spare bedrooms upstairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Towards the end of the day, Changbin and Jisung wearily retreated to the ground floor after finishing two of the bedrooms. Jisung made himself comfortable on the living room couch while Changbin went to the kitchen to scrounge for food. Rifling through the nearly empty fridge proved to be useless and Changbin instead searched through his old coat pockets to find a single 10,000 won note. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, I’ll be right back. I’m going out to get myself some food.” Changbin called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho said we’re not supposed to leave the property.” Jisung called back lazily. “There’s food left in the dishes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin let out a scowl thinking about the bland cat food, quickly ignoring Jisung, grabbing his shoes and slipping them on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be back in 15 minutes. What Minho doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.” Changbin called as he dashed out the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However as soon as he reached the gate he had a weird feeling of hesitation come over him as Jisung’s words repeated in his head. It was almost as if his body didn’t want to pass the threshold of the front gate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn that Minho and this familiar bond.” Changbin grumbled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quickly shook off the feeling and stepped out into the street, heading into a light jog towards the fried chicken restaurant just up the street.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Like clockwork, Changbin returned home 15 minutes later, a steaming box of sweet and spicy fried chicken in his hands. The smell of the chicken was absolutely heavenly and his mouth was already watering as he carried it into the kitchen. Placing it down on the kitchen table, he quickly ran to the washroom at the back of the house to wash up, passing Jisung still sprawled out on the couch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t touch my chicken!” Changbin yelled as he continued down the hall. “I will literally kill you if a single piece is missing when I get back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A couple minutes later Changbin returned to the kitchen only to find his box of chicken missing. He quickly checked the counters and looked under the table wondering if maybe he had misplaced the box or if it had possibly fallen onto the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung! YAH!” Changbin yelled angrily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Jisung replied lazily as he shuffled into the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where the hell is my chicken?!” Changbin snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno. I never saw your chicken.” Jisung replied, rubbing his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You fucking ate my chicken, I know you did! I can smell it on you!” Changbin accused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung just stood there blinking in disbelief at the sudden accusations being thrown at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re crazy. I didn’t touch your chicken.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what’s that stain on your shirt?” Changbin said, pointing at a small red stain on Jisung’s collar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? This?” Jisung replied, looking down and pulling on the collar of his t-shirt. “That’s from the ddukbokki we had last week! I just haven’t gotten around to cleaning this shirt!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re fucking unbelievable. I used my own money for that chicken!” Changbin continued to ramble. “I swear I get no fucking respect around here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I DIDN’T EAT YOUR DAMN CHICKEN!” Jisung spat back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“THEN WHO DID?!” Changbin yelled followed by an exasperated cry. “YOU’RE LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE HERE!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I DON’T KNOW BUT IT WASN’T ME!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin walked over to the knife block and carefully drew out the longest blade, carefully turning it over in his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You say Minho is a necromancer, right?” Changbin said in a preoccupied tone, eyes still focused on the knife blade. “He can bring anyone back from the dead whenever he pleases, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Jisung replied. “Why? What are you gonna do, stab me over your missing chicken?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Jisung even had time to react, Changbin had lunged, plunging the eight inch blade squarely into Jisung’s abdomen. Jisung let out a choked sound in surprise as the blade sunk deeper and deeper into his flesh. Changbin took hold of Jisung, pulling him in even closer as he rammed the blade in deeper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’ll teach you to eat my chicken.” Changbin growled in Jisung’s ear as he yanked the blade free with a violent twist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung let out a gasp in pain. He clumsily grasped at the bloody wound with one hand as he tried to cling to Changbin's shoulder in any attempt to stay upright with the other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get fucked.” Jisung replied weakly as he crumpled to the floor, a large pool of blood quickly spreading across the kitchen tiles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung was losing too much blood far too quickly. It only took a matter of seconds before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his hands fell limply to his sides.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin gave a small sneer as he cautiously stepped over Jisung’s body, tossing the bloody knife in the kitchen sink before noticing the mess he had made of his own clothes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah shit.” Changbin cursed as he looked down and saw the huge streak of blood across the midsection of his sweater.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At that very moment, the front door opened and Minho returned home, grumbling to himself as he kicked off his shoes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung!” Minho called. “Jisung, can you grab me some ibuprofen, I have the absolute worst headache right now. It just came out of nowhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Minho rounded the corner, rubbing his throbbing head he stopped dead in his tracks at the scene that lay in front of him. Changbin, covered in blood, was still standing over Jisung’s now lifeless body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“W-what happened?!” Minho blurted out as he rushed into the kitchen, slipping in the pool of blood as he knelt at Jisung’s side and quickly coming to the realization that he was completely unresponsive. “Is he dead? He’s dead. WHY IS JISUNG DEAD?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho’s eyes were already becoming wild as he frantically looked up to Changbin for any sort of answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said, why is he dead?!” Minho repeated in a much colder tone, his suspicions rising as he slowly rose to his feet. “Did </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> do this? Tell me what happened!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He ate my chicken so I figured I’d knock him down a peg.” Changbin grumbled smugly. “So yeah. I killed him. Whatever. You’re the all-powerful necromancer, just bring him back.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin let out an agitated huff as he crossed his arms dismissively in front of him and leaned against the counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YOU WHAT?!” Minho yelled in disbelief, his eyes burning with rage as he frustratedly dragged his hands down his face. “OVER CHICKEN?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Calm down, it’s no big deal.” Changbin replied. “I mean unless you can’t actually bring him back and aren’t as powerful as they say you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Calm down? CALM DOWN?!” Minho was now yelling at the top of his lungs, seconds away from losing all self restraint as a vein bulged on the side of his neck. “How dare you. How </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking dare</span>
  </em>
  <span> you. What gives you the right to take another’s life just like that? Just expecting me to clean up your petty mess? Do you even realize the damage you’ve done?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho angrily paced the kitchen floor in a futile attempt to calm himself down, torn between dealing with Changbin or resurrecting Jisung, that was, until Changbin spoke and made up his mind for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen, I was just teaching him a lesson.” Changbin rolled his eyes as Minho’s perceived overreaction and turned to leave the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really want those to be your last words?” Minho said coldly as he approached Changbin from behind, his eyes having turned dark as a strange purple glow began swirling around his hands. “Jisung is the only one capable of keeping my powers in check and you just took that away from me so how about I teach </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> a lesson instead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Changbin's eyes went wide as he whipped around to face Minho once more, suddenly realizing the gravity of what he had just done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho did not utter another word as he raised his right hand and in a flash the entire kitchen was filled with a blinding light as blood splattered everywhere, completely drenching the right side of Minho's body and painting the back wall a deep crimson colour.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having been alerted by the flash of light from beneath the door to Minho's room where he had been hiding all day, Hyunjin quickly emerged, sprinting to the kitchen to see what all the commotion was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell just happened?!” Hyunjin asked as he absentmindedly licked sweet and spicy chicken sauce from his fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he stepped into the kitchen Hyunjin quickly covered his mouth and nose with his hand to prevent himself from gagging at the sudden sight of all the blood. At the far side of the kitchen, Minho was knelt over Jisung, the remnants of a resurrection circle already fading away from beneath him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung suddenly sprang to life with a gasp, sitting bolt upright as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is Changbin? I’m going to kick his ass! I can’t believe he actually stabbed me! Look what he did to my shirt!” Jisung blurted out in anger, frantically looking around for any sign of Changbin. “I had to do odd jobs for three weeks to pay for this and now there’s a gaping hole! Where is he?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s going to be gone for a little while.” Minho replied calmly despite there still being a slight tremble in his voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung’s gaze fell on the blood covering Minho and the even larger spattering of blood on the floor and walls as things quickly sunk in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh… OH.” Jisung exclaimed, eyes wide. “But… where’s the body?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shh don't worry about him. You’re safe now.” Minho said as he pulled Jisung in for a hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit Jisung, I think Minho might have literally obliterated him. I don’t think there</span>
  <em>
    <span> is</span>
  </em>
  <span> a body.” Hyunjin commented from the doorway, still surveying the mass amount of blood everywhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho cautiously got to his feet, his damp socks slipping ever-so-slightly in the pool of blood he stood in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, let's get you cleaned up.” Minho said with a sigh as he extended a hand down to Jisung. “Hyunjin, I’m sorry but I’m going to need you to work on cleaning up the mess in here.” Minho instructed as he slowly pulled the absolutely blood-drenched Jisung to his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?! Why me?!” Hyunjin whined, cringing at the thought of having to mop up so much blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because you’re my familiar, that’s why.” Minho said sternly before his expression softened to an almost pleading look. “And you're the only one I can depend on right now. ...</span>
  <em>
    <span>Please</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin let out a loud whine, his entire body giving a wriggle in disapproval. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least wipe your feet down so you don’t track blood through the entire house and make my life even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> of a pain.” Hyunjin grumbled as he tossed a dish towel at Minho before he and Jisung disappeared towards the washroom at the back of the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin just stood there alone in the kitchen for several minutes not even knowing where to start.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After putting his hair up in a fluffy pink hairband—the only one he could find in a nearby moving box—Hyunjin began to reluctantly mop up the blood from the floor. He had barely been at it more than a couple minutes when a small glob of blood fell from the ceiling, landing on his cheek with a splat. Hyunjin’s eyes went wide as he wiped the blood from his face and slowly tilted his head upwards towards the ceiling; it was covered in even more carnage and he let out a long exasperated cry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the other side of the house Minho had started up the shower and was helping Jisung, who was still feeling a little woozy from the resurrection, steady himself and peel himself out of his bloody clothes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well at least I’m not going to have to wash this shirt now.” Jisung said with a weak laugh as he struggled to pull his tattered shirt over his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When we start making some actual money in this place I promise to buy you some new clothes.” Minho said quietly as he freed Jisung from his shirt and tossed the blood-soaked fabric to the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's fine. I can live without it.” Jisung sighed as he shrugged off his equally bloody sweatpants.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The water should be warm enough now.” Minho said as he ran his hand through the stream.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Jisung wasn’t paying attention. He was too distracted, looking intently at the deep purple slash on his stomach where he had been stabbed only minutes earlier. He began to curiously prod at the mark with his fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn I still can’t believe he actually stabbed me.” Jisung muttered as he pulled at his skin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a weak attempt to distract himself from the rage that was brewing within him once more, Minho vigorously began to lather shampoo into Jisung’s hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop, stop, I can do this much myself!” Jisung laughed, swatting away Minho's hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry.” Minho replied as he backed off, wiping his soapy hands on his blood-stained jeans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know it’s still bothering you but I'm fine now. You don’t need to continue brooding over my murder.” Jisung said with a laugh as he grabbed a washcloth and began scrubbing the blood from his face. “Now get in here, you're gross enough yourself covered in all that blood and you know as well as me there isn’t enough hot water for the both of us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho let out a small laugh looking at the spatterings of blood that covered nearly every inch of the front of him. “Shit I really did kill him didn't I...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean I was dead at the time so I can’t really provide a witness statement for what you did or did not do.” Jisung huffed playfully as he continued vigorously scrubbing. “But I also can’t say he didn’t deserve it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'll bring him back eventually.” Minho replied with a long sigh. “Just not now. I'm still too angry for what he did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung beckoned for Minho to join him once more and Minho reluctantly gave in to his request. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt and pants and struggled to remove them before stepping under the sputtering cascade of water from the ancient-looking shower head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The warm water was wonderfully calming and he just stood there for a moment soaking it in before taking a step back and slicking his wet hair out of his eyes. Jisung playfully wiped some of the blood off the side of Minho’s neck and ear while muttering something about how he couldn’t believe just how much blood was absolutely everywhere. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Minho just stood there in silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had known Jisung for the better part of nearly a decade since becoming his familiar but in those short minutes on the kitchen floor for the first time in a very long time he had really, truly feared losing him as well as losing control of himself. It had been so long since had last practiced any sort of magic that he had forgotten just how important Jisung was to him. He had become far too comfortable. Had he taken Jisung for granted? Minho looked at him with a forlorn expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Jisung asked with a raised eyebrow. “Why are you just staring at me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho didn’t say anything but instead pulled Jisung in for a tight hug, letting the warm water slowly wash over them as the blood circled the drain at their feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can never lose you, I never </span>
  <em>
    <span>want to</span>
  </em>
  <span> lose you.” Minho finally muttered out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Had he not been under the shower he might have even appeared to be crying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, it’ll take a lot more than a casual murder to get rid of me.” Jisung replied in a small voice as he wrapped his arms around Minho, happily resting his chin on his shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been nearly an hour and Hyunjin was making very little progress on mopping up the mess in the kitchen with the single sponge and limited leftover cleaning supplies that they had in the guesthouse. Despite the apron and neon pink rubber gloves he had donned for some sort of protection, he was covered head to toe in almost as much blood as the others had been previously as he slowly inched along scrubbing tile after tile. He let out a disgruntled sigh as he messily pushed a loose strand of hair out of his face using his forearm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When a loud buzzing sound suddenly came from the house intercom, Hyunjin hesitantly looked up to see a delivered person shown on the small screen standing outside the front gate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit.” Hyunjin cursed as he threw his sponge down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho!” Hyunjin called. “Minho there’s someone at the door! MINHO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But there was no answer from Minho and the sound of the running shower drowned out his voice. Reluctantly Hyunjin ripped off the bright pink rubber gloves, tossing them on the floor as got to his feet, reluctantly shuffling on some slippers and heading out the front door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he opened the large metal gate the delivery man immediately let out a gasp at Hyunjin’s bloody appearance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Hyunjin huffed, his hands on his hips as he blew another stray chunk of hair out of his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is… is that—” The delivery man stuttered out as they shakily held onto a large package.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wine. It's red wine. Don’t be stupid.” Hyunjin scoffed as he snatched the package out of his hands. “Three entire bottles. Mess absolutely everywhere. That's all it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin’s eyes flickered red for an instant and the delivery man just stood there in bewilderment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh… um… wine. Okay, alright, that makes sense. You have a nice day then.” He replied in a nervous tone before quickly turning and jogging back to his truck without a backwards glance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin just let out a small ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>tch</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ as he turned to head back into the house, dreading the rest of the mess that was still left to be cleaned up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Four grueling hours later Hyunjin had finally finished scrubbing every inch of the kitchen and his body was aching and sore from the hard labour he was not at all used to. Meanwhile Minho and Jisung had disappeared to Minho’s room hours ago and Hyunjin had not heard from them since.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho! I’m all done! I’m taking a shower now!” Hyunjin called as he headed into the washroom with his arms full of clean towels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you Hyunjin. You did a great job Hyunjin.” He muttered to himself in a mocking voice. “I totally don’t take advantage of you as my familiar Hyunjin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin turned on the shower head and let it run for a few seconds before stepping into the stream, welcoming the soothing relief from the hot water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was ice cold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As soon as the water hit Hyunjin’s skin he let out an ear-piercing scream and even the foundations of the house seemed to rumble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Told you there wouldn’t be enough hot water for the both of us.” Jisung muttered with a bit of a laugh, snuggling up against Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just cracked a smile and pulled him in tighter.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey... it's been awhile.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>As winter sluggishly transitioned into spring, the weather had finally begun to warm up and the snow quickly melted away, instead being replaced by uncharacteristically heavy rains for days on end leaving Felix in a sort of weird mental funk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stood wistfully looking out the living room window of the guest house, clutching a cup of hot tea as he slowly sipped it, his gaze focused on nothing in particular as his mind wandered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hate the rain.” Hyunjin’s voice grumbled from behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mildly startled, Felix whipped around to see the familiar approaching, immediately squeezing into his personal space and pressing his forehead against the glass in order to see what seemingly interesting thing Felix might have been looking at. Felix quickly raised his cup of tea over his head and out of harm's way so as not to spill the hot contents on either of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t take long for Felix to notice something was much different about Hyunjin; his once platinum blonde hair had turned a natural black colour and was tied up in a high messy ponytail making his visuals all the more intimidating for the small fae boy cowering beside him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin’s eyes darted over the nearby buildings and down the damp, glistening stone steps that lead down to the main road but he couldn’t seem to find what Felix had been so intently looking at. He gave his tongue an agitated click and turned to look down at Felix who was tightly pressed against the edge of the window frame, eyes wide as couldn’t take them off of Hyunjin’s new appearance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix could feel Hyunjin’s intense body heat due to his extremely close proximity but he also felt another heat creeping across his cheeks as he stood there caught in Hyunjin’s powerful gaze. He tried to garble out something about Hyunjin’s new look but couldn’t seem to string together any sort of coherent sentence other than “hair” and “different” and quickly accepted verbal defeat, letting out a small flustered whine as his face reddened in embarrassment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe you’ve just been standing here for like twenty minutes. There’s nothing even out there!” Hyunjin huffed as Felix’s face burned even brighter red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-you were watching me?!” Felix blurted out, giving his hair a flustered ruffle. “For how long?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin merely rolled his eyes at the comment and didn’t bother to respond.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re so weird.” He muttered as he tucked a stray chunk of hair behind his ear and turned and stalked back towards the couch, giving a large stretch before flopping face down on the pillows without another word.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s heart was still racing as he stood at the window, an unintentionally white-knuckle grasp on the cup he held in front of him, wondering where Hyunjin had even come from or what exactly had just transpired… or why he was suddenly so incredibly flustered by it. It wasn’t the usual fearing-for-his-life kind of flustered… it was… different? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a vigorous shake of his head, in a split decision he decided to retreat to his bedroom, at least there he would be free from the prying eyes of Minho’s familiars. Maybe he could keep his mind busy by getting a start on the dozens of assignments he had due for his classes in the coming weeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However as he reached the top of the stairs his sock feet suddenly felt something cold and damp soak through them and a shiver ran through his body at the unpleasant sensation. Letting out a small curse he awkwardly hopped across the wet carpet and into his room, placing his tea down as he peeled off his soggy socks. When he looked up and over to his desk where he had recently moved Alfie’s bed, he saw Doongie curled up with the small possum, fast asleep. Felix let out a long sigh. So much for being free of Minho’s familiars. He tossed his damp socks in the laundry hamper and went in search of might have been the cause of the unusually damp carpet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peeking his head out of the bedroom door he followed the wet trail along the floor until he reached a spot near the end of the hall where the accumulation seemed the worst. When he looked up he saw what looked like some sort of square hatch in the ceiling that was leaking horribly along all four of its edges as a large drop of water splattered directly onto his forehead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no. That’s not good.” Felix muttered to himself as he wiped the water from his forehead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin!” Felix called. “Hey! Hyunjin!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whaaaaaat?” Hyunjin called back from downstairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is there an attic in the house or something?” Felix called back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno?” Hyunjin replied, having reluctantly moved to the bottom of the stairs as he looked up at Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something is leaking and now everything’s all wet.” Felix said as he pointed to the bloated and dripping ceiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho can deal with it when he gets home.” Hyunjin replied curtly as he immediately switched back to his feline form and disappeared from sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix let out another long sigh knowing he couldn’t just leave the leak as it was or who knows what sort of mould could start sprouting up from the ancient-looking carpet in the house. So while he didn’t know exactly how to stop the leak or where it was coming from, he could at least clean up the aftermath from it the best he could as he waited for Minho to get home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several hours later a weary Minho returned home to the guest house after a long day’s work, an even wearier and grumpier Changbin following close behind him having been dragged along to help. Changbin had only passed over the threshold before shifting into Dori and running off down the hall not to be bothered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Minho, um, I know you’re probably exhausted but, uh, there’s a bit of an issue…” Felix began to say, Minho having barely had time to remove his shoes as he shot him a rather displeased yet exhausted glare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Putting his shoes away, he reluctantly followed Felix upstairs to see that the entire hallway floor was covered in various containers filled with varying increments of water as droplets continued to tinkle down from the large mystery hatch in the ceiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I cleaned things up the best I could and the carpet is slowly drying out but... I think there’s a bit of a leak?” Felix said in a small voice as he pointed to the sopping wet ceiling as a comically large piece of plaster fell from it, splattering into a small container below.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I swear, this damn house…” Minho cursed loudly as he wearily dragged his hand down his face. “Just… just leave it for now, I’ll take a look in the morning. I doubt it can get a whole worse before then and I’m way too tired to deal with it now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, uh, okay.” Felix replied quietly before Minho disappeared downstairs for the night, Doongie leaving his napping place in Felix’s room to scamper after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Come morning, the clouds finally broke, the rain let up and the sun finally shone down on the small guest house. Minho was quick to get to work finding the source of the leak, and even quicker to become completely frustrated by it. Jisung had been helping for a short while but quickly got into an argument with Minho over how to properly do things and was quickly exiled to the living room for his insubordination where he decided to just nap in retaliation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is something wrong?” Felix asked as he watched Minho balance precariously on a kitchen chair that he had propped up against the wall to reach the hatch, prying at the corner of the hatch with the back hook of a hammer with not much success.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No Felix, everything is perfectly as it should be.” Minho replied in an agitated manner, motioning at the severe amount of water damage on the ceiling and the sprinkling of plaster all over the damp carpet below. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His tone immediately changed when he noticed Felix’s taken aback expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry. I mean… I think this hatch leads out onto the roof but it appears to be stuck. If only there was some easy way to access it from the other side to try and pry it open...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could fly up there and check it out?” Felix offered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just looked at him blankly for a moment before fully realizing what Felix meant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Oh! Yeah! Yeah that would be great!” Minho exclaimed, blinking in surprise at Felix’s offer. “I’m so used to being surrounded by three idiots I forgot you’re also a witch!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, thanks?” Felix replied with a confused laugh. “But yeah just give me a minute to grab my broom and I’ll head up there and take a look, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix ran off to grab a small wooden wand from a pencil case in his room before tucking it behind his ear and sprinting down the stairs. He retrieved his rickety old broom from the hall closet and headed out into the small front yard of the guest house. It must have been months since he last used his broom and he was feeling quite rusty. He quickly took note of the surrounding weather and wind speeds and took a few steps away from nearby ginkgo tree to ensure he would have a clear takeoff space. Straddling the broom, with little hesitation and a single kick of his feet, Felix flew up into the air and effortlessly soared about the house. He did a quick circle of the property, scoping out the roof before gently landing on a large flat portion that looked like it had once been an old roof terrace. Hopping off his broom he got to work locating the hatch which was partially covered in old leaves and debris blown in from the recent rainstorms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Minho!” Felix called down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” Minho’s muffled voice replied from the other side of the hatch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think there used to be a roof terrace up here!” Felix said excitedly as he looked around at the open space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool? Are you gonna help get this open or not?” Minho called back in an impatient tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On it!” Felix said in a determined tone as he firmly grasped the handle of the hatch and gave it a pull.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the hatch didn’t move an inch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He tried pushing but still nothing, even when he put his full body weight on the small door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both Felix and Minho tried to open it from both sides but it just wouldn’t budge no matter what they tried. Felix decided he was going to have to take things up a notch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho stand back! I’m gonna blast it!” Felix called down, giving Minho only seconds to scramble away from the hatch below before he pulled out the small wand he had tucked behind one ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here goes nothing.” Felix muttered as he began to recite a short incantation, brandishing his wand towards the edge of the hatch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a sudden flash of light as Felix flinched away but when he looked back at the smoking hatch, it had miraculously popped open and he quickly ran over and struggled to push down the door and ladder. The clunky ladder only slid halfway down but opening the hatch was a start.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did it!” Felix called excitedly as he looked down into the hallway below, Minho cautiously stepping into the light of the opening, jumping up to grab the ladder and pull it the rest of way down to the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho cautiously climbed up the rickety ladder until his head popped up above the floor of the roof terrace. He surveyed the hatch and the entire seal around it had horribly warped and would need to be replaced. And it wasn’t going to be fast or cheap to repair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the meantime Felix was already exploring the rest of the terrace, his mind immediately full of ideas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Minho…” Felix began to ask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just hummed in response, deep in thought, trying to pry the seal of the hatch away from the base building with a screwdriver.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think I could maybe have a small garden up here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can have a garden on the ground, why do you need one up here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno, it just feels so much brighter up here. I could grow some veggies for us as well, cut down on the grocery bill.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine. Whatever. Just, you’ll be responsible for cleaning this place up if you want to use it.” Minho replied in a preoccupied tone as he continued to struggle with the repairs in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you!” Felix chirped happily as he gave Minho an unexpected and crushing hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the days passed and Minho slowly was able to fix the leaky hatch and damaged ceiling. Felix had made great progress on his rooftop garden. He had managed to clear up the entire terrace, even fixing the small railing that ran around it and had constructed various planters to house the dozens of herbs, vegetables and other plants he planned to plant up there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even Soonie, Doongie and Dori had taken a liking to the terrace, coming up to lay in the afternoon sun as Minho and Felix worked away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was also finally able to put his fae abilities to use and the seeds he planted grew exponentially fast, bearing fruit within only a week or so. The only downside was that Felix was having a hard time keeping Minho’s familiars away from some of his plants and often found them stealing some of the smaller produce to snack on when they thought he wasn’t looking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the garden had come together easily enough, there were some other rarer plants Felix was looking to plant to specifically help with his charms and potion-making.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho, do you know if there are any good garden or flower shops nearby?” Felix asked one night as he sat in the kitchen with his laptop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm… I don’t know, I think there’s a flower shop up the road you could try? But otherwise I’m not much help in that department.” Minho replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Also, um, do you happen to have any of those talismans? Like the ones on the fridge? I want to plant some catnip and some more potent stuff up on the roof and I don’t want the cats getting into it since they’ve already decimated my cherry tomatoes, lemongrass, and lavender plants.” Felix continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many do you need?” Minho asked, pulling open a small drawer to reveal a large wad of talismans held together with a rubber band.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He began leafing through them to count them out as Felix stood there momentarily in disbelief at the sheer number of them Minho had in possession.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um three or four should do it.” Felix replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, take six. Just in case.” Minho said, handing them over. “You know how to activate them, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix just nodded before thanking him and heading back to his research. After compiling a short list of places he might be able to find the plants he needed, he turned in early for the night in hopes of getting an early start first thing the next morning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix awoke with the sunrise and Alfie eagerly clambered up onto his shoulder once Felix was ready for the day. After going through his list of flower and garden shops the night before, he saw that the closest one was only about a 10 minute walk away so he was determined to get there right when they opened to see if there were any plants he could add to his garden. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he gleefully made his way down the stairs, Felix noticed Minho asleep on the couch in the living room and quickly lightened his footsteps. He tiptoed down the hall and peered into the living room. Minho lay splayed face down on the couch, his one arm dangling over the edge, Soonie snuggled tightly in the crook of his elbow as his phone balanced precariously on the edge of the couch cushion. Doongie was curled up at Minho’s feet while Dori was fast asleep laying across Minho’s neck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix couldn’t help but crack a small smile at how peaceful they all looked as he was used to the house being much more chaotic, especially ever since Dori had been brought back. Felix didn’t linger long though as he had his mission to carry out and he didn’t want to disturb Minho as he knew he had been taking a lot of late night jobs recently and often slept through the day. So without a single sound, Felix quickly and quietly grabbed his book bag, slipped on his shoes and headed out the front door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite having lived there for months already, Felix hadn’t really explored too much of the surrounding neighbourhood except for what he saw on the way to and from campus. It was quite exciting to get to see new places and it wasn’t long until he reached the first flower shop on the list. It was quite small but the outside was completely overgrown with morning glories, ivy and butterfly plants with a smattering of a dozen or so other flowers scattered about on the ground out front in various makeshift pots.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was incredibly excited as he headed into the small shop, Alfie still tightly clung to his shoulder, head swiveling back and forth trying to take in all the foreign foliage around him. He quickly greeted the shopkeeper and went to work browsing everything they had in store. It wasn’t long before he found dozens upon dozens of seeds he could easily add to his garden.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I haven’t seen someone so excited about the plants I have to offer in a long time.” The shopkeeper said with a laugh as she tidied up the front of the store, arranging some dried flowers in a display.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, I just moved here and we never had access to many of these plants in Australia and it’s all so wonderful!” Felix quickly rambled off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“New to the neighbourhood eh?” The shopkeeper asked. “Better be careful out there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm? Why’s that?” Felix asked in a distracted voice as he leafed through a drawer of paper seed packets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’ve been rumours about unfavorables moving to the neighbourhood and causing trouble recently.” The shopkeeper said in a worrisome tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah I’m not worried.” Felix said with a laugh as he pulled out another packet he was looking for. “My housemate has warned me of the dangerous areas and I barely go out anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With his arms filled with various clippings and seeds Felix carried them all over the counter to pay, placing his book bag on the countertop as he did so to carefully pack them away after he had paid for everything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Before you go, there’s something I want to offer you.” The shopkeeper said as they pulled out a small box from beneath the counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh you’re too kind already I really don’t need anything else!” Felix said, trying to wave off the offer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, take a look at these. They’re great for warding off unfavorable creatures from entering your garden.” The shopkeeper said as they offered the small box to Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However as Felix reached for the small box, his hand suddenly jerked away in shock causing it to drop onto the countertop. Four leaf clovers—a known fae repellant—spilled out of the box and scattered everywhere. As Felix looked over the clovers his eyes widened as he was immediately filled with an overwhelming sense of dread. He instinctively took a step back, trying to put much space between him and the small leafy greens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong?” The shopkeeper asked as Felix continued to back away, quickly covering the lower half of his face with his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait… don’t tell me you’re actually fae...” The shopkeeper asked, their eyes suddenly going wide in fear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um…I...” Felix began to panic. “I…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are, aren’t you! I can’t believe it. Disgusting! Get out of my shop!” The shopkeeper's tone had turned much colder as she pulled an old-looking wand from their apron, brandishing it at Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please, please I swear I’m not here to cause any harm.” Felix muffled out behind one hand while raising the other as he backed away slowly. “I’m only half fae! I’m a witch just like you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like hell you are you filthy halfbreed. We don’t want your kind around here. Get out!” The shopkeeper repeated as Felix stumbled over some potted plants.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix scrambled out the door of the shop and began sprinting down the street, Alfie still clung to his shoulder making frightened squeaks as he looked back at the angry shopkeeper standing in the door of the shop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And if I ever catch you around here again I’ll banish you myself!” The shopkeeper shouted out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix ran all the way back to the guest house and as soon as he was inside the front gate he collapsed at the base of the ginkgo tree, pulling his knees in tightly up to his chest as he sobbed deeply. He had heard stories about the prejudice against fae folk in the human world but he never expected it to be actually true, especially since he was predominantly human-passing. He had never felt so hurt and when he realized he had left his book bag back at the shop and he would not be able to go back and get it it only made him sob even more, sparkly tears streaming down his face. Alfie tried to console him but the small possum's nuzzles were not enough to calm him down and Aflie retreated into the house to find backup.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few minutes of loud sobbing, Soonie had hopped up on the sill of the nearby open kitchen window to look for the source of the noise disturbing his morning nap. When he saw the distraught-looking Felix he hopped down and cautiously padded towards him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Soonie?” Felix muttered between snuffles. “Come here kitty.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soonie approached cautiously and Felix quickly scooped him up in his arms, burying his face in his soft fur as he continued to cry. After a few minutes, Felix was finally able to calm himself down a bit and Soonie wriggled free, jumping out of Felix’s arms and quickly shifting into Hyunjin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunjin pulled at his shirt, it was splotched with sparkly wet marks from Felix’s tears and he gave a bit of a frown.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe your tears are actually sparkly. Is everything about you sparkly?” Hyunjin commented sarcastically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, my boogers are too, wanna see?” Felix joked with a loud sniffle as Hyunjin cringed away in disgust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, I was just… it’s nothing. I’m just overreacting and got a little emotional.” Felix muttered as he pulled his knees in closer once more and rested his chin on them with a small pout, wiping the lingering tears from his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me what happened.” Hyunjin said as he crouched down in front of Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix carefully recounted what had happened at the flower shop; how he had been called a halfbreed and chased out of the store and how he had left his book bag containing all his gardening notes as well as all the seeds he had already purchased behind. Felix was evidently still distraught about everything and it was definitely no fault of his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leave it to me.” Hyunjin said as he got to his feet and headed to the gate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Welcome! Please come in!” The shopkeeper called happily when they heard the soft tinkle of the bells above the door. “What can I help you with?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah I’m looking for something very specific.” Hyunjin said in a dark tone as his eyes fell upon the shopkeeper and flickered red. “I believe a friend of mine left his book bag behind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shopkeeper let out a nervous gulp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-you’re a demon!” They stuttered out as they reached for their wand as Hyunjin’s eyes glowed an even more menacing shade of red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tch, I’m a </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hyunjin scoff. “And I’m missing my nap right now so I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>pissed</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several minutes later Hyunjin strolled back down the street, book bag slung over his shoulder as he casually brushed a stray chunk of hair out of his face. When he got back to the guest house he tossed the book bag at Felix’s feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Steak. Medium-rare.” Hyunjin commented with no further context.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Felix blurted out, wide-eyed as he went through his bag to make sure everything was there. “Wow, I can’t believe you actually got all this back for me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s what you owe me. Steak.” Hyunjin replied as he carefully helped Felix to his feet and into the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You got it.” Felix said with a laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Later that night Minho confronted Felix about what had happened earlier in the day, having been told secondhand from Hyunjin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m really sorry that happened to you.” Minho said in a displeased tone. “I can’t believe such bigots live so close by.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine. I’ll just make sure to avoid that place from now on.” Felix said with a small dejected laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s really not fine. I’m sure the shopkeeper will tell other equally gross people about you and I really don’t want you getting targeted while staying here.” Minho began to say. “I talked to the others and from now on when you go out, one of them will accompany you to help keep you safe if something like this should happen again. Hell, even Changbin managed to sympathize so you know it’s serious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho gave a bit of a laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really didn’t have to.” Felix said with a small smile. “I’m sure I will be fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t mention it, you’re basically part of our weird little family now so I will do whatever it takes to make sure you feel at ease.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks Minho… it really means a lot.” Felix said warmly, pulling Minho into another reluctant hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho slowly reciprocated the hug this time, cracking the smallest smile as he did so.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Content warning: this chapter contains depictions of a rather traumatic death.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Spring was finally in full force, leaves were budding on the trees and cherry blossoms were in full bloom giving the local parks and side streets a soft pink drama esthetic. Felix spent the majority of his free time happily tending to his small little roof garden. Meanwhile, Minho was busy putting up flyers around the neighbourhood once again as despite Felix’s monthly rent helping to cover some costs around the guest house, it just wasn't enough and they still needed more boarders or else money was going to begin running out again sooner rather than later. The house ended up being rather quiet as everyone came and went with their various activities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was quite surprised the day Jisung came knocking on his bedroom door. Of the three cat familiars, Hyunjin was the only one who tended to take on and stay in human form the majority of the time whereas Doongie and Dori often just remained feline. He had to admit that he forgot Jisung was actually Jisung half the time as he was so used to just seeing Doongie lounging around the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Jisung?” Felix said in surprise as he opened up the door. “Um, is uh, something wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah, nothing’s wrong I just had an idea.” Jisung said in a mildly excited voice as he stood in the hallway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a brief pause as Jisung fiddled with his fingers and gathered his thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, like, you can fly a broom right?” Jisung asked. “I mean, I know you can, I’ve literally seen you but like I have a request.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix slowly nodded, drawing his eyebrows together as he was not entirely sure where Jisung was going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So this may sound a little weird but like, could you maybe… teach me?” Jisung scrunched his nose and hunched his shoulders expecting Felix to say no.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Teach you? To ride a broom? Well, yeah I guess but can familiars even ride a broom?” Felix asked in a puzzled tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yeah totally!” Jisung happily chirped. “Lemme explain. So like familiars can sort of feed off their master’s abilities to a small extent to basically </span>
  <em>
    <span>better serve them</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He switched to a more exaggerated tone to highlight the last couple of words. “Basically I can do a small amount of magic, not crazy weird stuff like Hell Prince Hyunjin but I can do </span>
  <em>
    <span>enough</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But why wouldn’t you ask Minho though? You’re his familiar after all.” Felix said with a bit of a laugh as Alfie let out a grumpy noise behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have in the past with no luck as Minho despises flying by broom, probably to the extent that he doesn’t even know </span>
  <em>
    <span>how to </span>
  </em>
  <span>anymore. So that’s why I’m coming to ask you.” Jisung replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh, here I thought Minho was just joking about being scared of heights. I wouldn’t have thought a necromancer to be scared of something so… I don’t know, basic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No that’s 100% true. I don’t really like heights either but man it would be so much faster running errands even just hovering a couple feet off the ground. Those stairs outside are killer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix laughed. Jisung was not at all wrong about the stairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess I could teach you, yeah. It would be fun!” Felix responded with a smile as Jisung absolutely beamed in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right on! Let’s go! Right now!” Jisung exclaimed, nearly vibrating with excitement. “We can go to the park up the hill! I’ve seen kids flying over there a ton of times!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gave a confident nod and Jisung was quick to latch onto his wrist, basically dragging him down the hall and downstairs in excitement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix grabbed his broom from the closet and they made the short walk to the park up the street. The entire time Jisung was excitedly recounting another one of his long-winded tangents about a completely unrelated time where Minho unintentionally summoned half a dozen feral pixies into his small former apartment while studying for a practical magic exam a couple years ago and they had spent half the night trying to catch them all after they escaped out his basement window. Felix couldn’t help but laugh at Jisung’s exaggerated storytelling. It was always nice talking to Jisung because it felt like he was talking to someone he had known for years despite how infrequently he actually did get to talk with him due to his choice to spend the majority of his time in his feline form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s one thing I’ve noticed since moving here though.” Felix began to say. “You tell all these stories about Minho’s powers and I’ve seen the resurrections so I know he has them but he really never uses his magic, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah he doesn’t like using it anymore if there’s a more practical human way about things. I think it’s partially from his upbringing as he was a bit of a late bloomer… and partially because he wants to make sure his powers always stay in check.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean by that last part?” Felix asked as his pace slowed, causing Jisung to double back a couple steps to face him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh nothing!” Jisung blurted out in a panicked tone as if he may have just said something he shouldn’t have. “It’s just the stigma with necromancers, you know? Everyone always thinks they’re about to unleash hell upon the human realm or something so Minho likes to be cautious is all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung let out a nervous laugh as he gave his neck an exaggerated crick.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is something like that …even possible though?” Felix grimaced a little at the thought of how potentially dangerous Jisung’s words actually were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it Lix!” Jisung said, giving Felix’s shoulder a playful punch. “As long as I’m around you have nothing to fear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you say so...” Felix replied in a wary tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung was quick to veer the conversation in a completely different direction and began recounting some of Changbin’s more embarrassing stories instead, leaving his words about Minho buried in the back of Felix’s mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When they finally reached the park a few minutes later and climbed the dozens and dozens of steps that led to the top, Jisung was getting more and more excited. Felix couldn’t help but feel excited as well as it was the first time he really got to do anything fun with someone outside of the guest house. And it was such a perfect day for flying. The weather was beautifully warm and there was just a hint of a cool breeze in the air that gently ruffled the pink cherry blossoms on the trees around them, occasionally picking up and causing a small flurry of stray petals to swirl around their feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright so what’s first?” He asked in an almost frantic tone, vibrating in anticipation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t get too ahead of yourself.” Felix cautioned with a laugh as he slung his broom off his shoulder and passed it to Jisung. “You gotta get a feel for things first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung gently took the broom from Felix’s hands, gaging the weight of it as he slowly raised and lowered it and gave it a bit of a spin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So how does this thing work?” Jisung asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix was befuddled for a moment as he pondered Jisung’s question. “Come to think of it… I’m not entirely sure?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds safe.” Jisung huffed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No I mean, I know how it works but I don’t know </span>
  <em>
    <span>how</span>
  </em>
  <span> it works… if that makes any sense?” Felix replied. “It works the same way as a wand works, like a sort of conduit for magic but instead of casting spells, its only purpose is to, well, fly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh.” Jisung replied absentmindedly as he ran his fingers through the stiff bristles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways, enough about the science of magical conduits, do you wanna learn to ride this thing or not?” Felix said in a determined tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung nodded and they finally got to work. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix had Jisung first get a feel for how to sit on the broom and the different styles of doing so. He suggested it would be best and safest to just straddle the broom and lock his legs underneath so that if he were to veer too fast one way or another it would be less likely to buck him off. Felix also went over the various controls for steering the broom and guiding it up and down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now it’s going to take a lot of concentration so don’t get too frustrated if you don’t get it immediately.” Felix instructed. “But what I’m going to need you to do is firmly situate yourself on the broom, tightly grasping the front handle and then basically just hop up, focusing on staying in the air.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung attempted to do as Felix had instructed but ended up just hopping up and down across the ground with the broom between his legs. Felix immediately burst out in a flurry of giggles. He nearly doubled-over from laughing within seconds at the sight of Jisung aggressively bunny hopping everywhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no, no wait stop!” Felix gasped out between laughs as he beckoned Jisung closer. “Come back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung hopped his way back over. “I don’t think it’s working.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here let me help you out the first time, alright?” Felix said as he gently approached Jisung and slid behind him onto the broom. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh my, how romantic</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Jisung joked as Felix reached around and took a hold of the broom handle in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop that.” Felix playfully huffed. “Now, feel how I do it, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s what she said.” Jisung joked once more as Felix gave him a swat across the back of his head and Jisung let out a hearty laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix didn’t really say anything else but before Jisung knew it they were several feet off the ground and he was scrambling to hold onto the broom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See how it works?” Felix said as he flew them in large slow circles around the park.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung frantically nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wanna try steering a bit?” Felix asked, removing his own hands from the broom handle as Jisung fumbled to grip the handle once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly Jisung was able to guide the broom around without help from Felix and Felix slowly had them land once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See that wasn’t so bad was it?” Felix said proudly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think I could try by myself?” Jisung asked as Felix hopped off the back of the broom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go for it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung gave a nod and focused everything into taking off. This time after the second jump he finally hung in the air and began to wobbly ascend until he was three or so feet off the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did it!” Jisung yelled proudly as he shakily steered the broom around Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re doing great!” Felix exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How high can this thing go?” Jisung asked as he immediately jerked the handle upwards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Careful!” Felix warned. “Don’t go too high too quickly or you’ll stall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Felix’s words were a split second too late as Jisung immediately stalled out far too high off the ground and began to fall back. Felix’s heart skipped a beat as he watched Jisung fall but at the last possible second Jisung was able to catch himself and fly out of the freefall, missing the ground by inches and ascending once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung! Be careful!” Felix shouted up at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine! Don’t worry I got this!” Jisung called back playfully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung continued to zip around the open airspace around the park as Felix jogged back and forth beneath him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix! Look!” Jisung yelled happily as he let go of the broom handle, spreading his arms wide at his sides as the wind whipped through his hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on to the broom or you’ll lose control!” Felix called up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once again Felix’s words were a split second too late. Right before his eyes, Jisung went from having a blast to sheer panic. He tried turning too sharply while not holding onto the broom causing him to lose his balance and struggle to right himself once more. This time his attempt to catch himself wasn’t successful as he panicked and overcorrected, causing himself to be bucked from the broom. As he fell he made a desperate grab for the handle but the wood handle slipped through his fingers and he continued to plummet towards the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung!” Felix cried as he ran towards him, flinching away as he hit the ground with a heavy thud, the broom bouncing across the grass beside him. “Jisung! Jisung are you alright?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But there was no answer from Jisung and he lay slumped on the ground with his back to Felix. As he hovered over him, Felix gave Jisung’s shoulder a light shake but Jisung just lay there. Cautiously, Felix rolled him over onto his back, his head immediately lolling to the side at an impossibly awkward angle as a trickle of blood seeped from his brow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s heart skipped a beat as he leapt backwards in shock.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung?” Felix squeaked out as his eyes fell on Jisung’s empty, unblinking upwards gaze. “Jisung if this is a joke this really isn’t funny...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix’s voice cracked as he spoke, his emotions quickly overwhelming him as the gravity of the situation began to sink in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung please…” Felix begged as he slowly knelt down beside him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But still Jisung didn’t move an inch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Adrenaline was coursing through his veins as Felix fumbled around, trying to find some source of breathing or pulse or anything but he had no idea how to even check for those things on a demon. Meanwhile Jisung just lay on the cold, hard ground, splayed out like a ragdoll, completely motionless and devoid of any sign of life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung was dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no. No, no, no!” Felix blurted out in a panic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quickly jumped back and away from Jisung’s body once more, his heart absolutely racing and his breathing already becoming erratic as a panic attack had him deep in its clutches.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jisung is dead. Oh god oh god oh god.” Felix muttered while frantically biting at his nails. “Minho is going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> kill me. I am going to die because of this. My life is over...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he paced in circles, he fumbled through his pockets to find his phone. His hands were shaking so badly, it made it impossibly difficult to dial any sort of number but eventually he was able to pull up Minho’s number in his contacts. A lump was already forming in his throat as his mind swam with intrusive thoughts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The phone rang and rang but there was no answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on Minho please pick up.” Felix whined into the phone as he tried calling again and again to no avail.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix looked over at Jisung once more and let out a pained noise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop looking at me like thaaaaat!” Felix wailed as if Jisung could actually hear him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He began frantically scrolling through his contacts again until he found the one for the guest house and even though he wasn’t sure if the house phone even worked anymore, he had to try. The phone seemed to ring for an excruciatingly long time before someone finally answered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eunhang Guest House, the underappreciated one speaking.” Hyunjin’s voice said casually, having answered the phone in the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin?! Oh thank god. It’s Felix. Is Minho home? It’s an emergency!” Felix blurted out, his voice cracking and his hand shaking as he held the phone to his ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix? Yeah he’s home but he literally </span>
  <em>
    <span>just</span>
  </em>
  <span> went and locked himself away in his room complaining about a really bad headache or something. Why? Why didn’t you just call his phone? What’s wrong?” Hyunjin asked, idly twirling the cord of the phone between his fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did but he didn’t pick up! But that’s beside the point. I uh… I… I think I killed Jisung.” Felix replied, his voice catching in his throat as his eyes landed back on Jisung’s limp body laying. “He… he’s not moving. I don’t know what to do! Hyunjin you </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> to get Minho for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Killed Jisung? Ooooh Minho is not going to like that. What’d he do to deserve it?” Hyunjin scoffed with an eyeroll, the tone of his voice hinting at no sense of urgency.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I think he’s really dead! Hyunjin </span>
  <em>
    <span>please</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” Felix begged, sparkly tears welling in his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, alright one sec.” Hyunjin said, his voice still unnervingly calm as he pulled the phone away before yelling into the house. “MINHO! HEY! MINHO, IT’S FELIX! HE SAID SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAPPENED WITH JISUNG!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All Felix could hear was what sounded like a door slamming off in the distance followed by a loud “WHAT?!” from Minho in response. There was some sort of scuffle on the other end of the line as Minho took hold of the phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello? Hello Felix? What happened!? Are you alright!?” Minho blurted out, seemingly out of breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi I’m here, I’m fine but Ji—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh thank the gods you’re okay.” Minho said with a relieved sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No you don’t get it! Jisung is DEAD!” Felix was nearly hysterical, yelling into the phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho’s heart sank and his eyes went wide as he suddenly realized what had been the cause of his headache. His eyes began to lose focus as he stared off into the distance, a shrill ringing building in his ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho?” Hyunjin called as he stood nearby with his arms crossed, suddenly noticing how his disposition had changed so drastically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho gave his head a violent shake, blinking heavily several times before being dragged back to his senses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry. Sorry. Okay, calm down. We can fix this.” Minho said calmly. “Just breathe in slowly. We don’t have much time and I need you to listen carefully.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“O-okay.” Felix replied with a loud snuffle, his voice high-pitched and shaky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, where are you?” Minho asked, his tone firm and unwavering.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The park up the street. The one with the forest. We’re up at the top by the lookout.” Felix replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are there people around?” Minho continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix quickly looked around him. They were the only people there, the rest of the park was completely empty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no just us. Uh, just me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay do you know how to do a concealing charm?” Minho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-yeah.” Felix replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay good. Do that. Hide the body for now if you can. We don’t want you getting arrested. I’ll be right over. Don’t move.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Arrested?!” Felix squeaked out but there was a loud click on the other end of the phone as Minho had already hung up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay okay he said to do a concealing charm. I can do that.” Felix looked at Jisung’s body once more and let out a tiny whine, frantically shaking his hands as his nerves got the better of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix immediately began collecting a dozen or so small stones, carefully placing them around Jisung’s body, gently cradling each stone in his hands while whispering a small incantation over them before placing them down in a circle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took a couple of attempts for Felix to concentrate well enough for the charm to work but once he had finished and the marked off area disappeared from sight, he sat down on the cold ground pulling his knees up to his chest as he stared out over where Jisung’s body was hidden, just waiting for Minho to arrive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite it only taking a couple minutes for Minho to arrive, it felt like an excruciatingly long time for Felix as every precious second dragged on like an eternity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix?!” Minho called as he ran up the steep steps of the park half out of breath. “Felix where are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m here!” Felix replied, jumping to his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once Minho spotted him he sprinted over and quickly began giving Felix a full onceover, taking Felix’s face in his hands. Felix had never seen Minho seem so distraught and frantic before, his eyes glossy and unblinking as he made sure Felix wasn’t injured</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure you’re not hurt at all?” Minho asked frantically, squishing Felix’s cheeks as he turned his head side to side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine! Really!” Felix replied, swatting Minho hands away and gesturing to where Jisung lay, removing the charm as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho looked to where Felix was pointing and his demeanor deteriorated tenfold, looking on the verge of a breakdown. Jisung was still blankly staring off into the distance, his neck twisted at that impossible angle. Minho let out a long sigh as his eyes trailed over Jisung’s body. He took a couple steps and gently nudged Jisung’s shoulder with his foot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Minho yelled. “Hey stop fooling around!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho knelt down and much like Felix had and tried to find some sort of hint of life before confirming Felix’s assumptions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe it… he really is dead.” Minho muttered in an exhausted yet mildly broken tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho turned back to Felix with raised eyebrows, his eyes unusually dark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” He asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix looked like he was almost about to lose all his composure as the sparkly tears began to stream down his cheeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“H-he asked me to teach him how to fly a broom.” Felix garbled out between a couple deep sobs “So… so I was having him practice and he went too high and lost control and… and… and...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He suddenly became so distraught he couldn’t even finish his sentence so he just mimicked an exaggerated plummeting motion with his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you guys don’t believe me when I say those things are dangerous.” Minho muttered to himself, ducking his head and inhaling deeply in the process. “Stand back and I’ll take care of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nodded and cautiously took a couple steps back, frantically chewing on his thumbnails as his glassy eyes darted about the scene in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time, the resurrection was seamlessly fast and wasn’t nearly as horrifying as when Minho had brought Changbin back. In fact if Felix hadn’t known any better, he probably wouldn’t have even realized what Minho was doing or what the magic circles were even for as the majority of the symbols were completely foreign to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the magic circles swirled around Jisung and began to intensify in brightness, the spell quickly took hold and in no time at all it was already complete. There were a couple loud cracking sounds and Jisung suddenly gasped, his eyes going wide for a moment before he slowly began to push himself up off the ground into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so. As he looked around, the magic circles began to fade and Minho let out a sigh of relief, slumping back down on the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho? When did you get here? What happened?” Jisung asked as he gave his neck a couple hard cracks from side to side. “Damn my neck is killing me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You died.” Minho replied in a dry tone, trying his best to keep his composure as he crudely dabbed the small amount of blood from Jisung’s forehead with his shirt sleeve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn, again?” Jisung began counting on his fingers. “Nothing got through in the meantime though, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, Felix alerted me really quickly. Just a nasty headache.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What a relief.” Jisung breathed out a sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An awkward silence momentarily fell over the three of them as a swirl of cherry blossom petals blew past.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re gonna run out of your nine lives sooner or later acting like an idiot like this.” Minho laughed darkly, suddenly giving Jisung a slap across the shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are you two so casual about this?!” Felix blurted out with a bit of a nervous laugh himself, his eyes and nose were still red and puffy and his cheeks were stained with tiny sparkles from how much he had been crying during the whole ordeal and he desperately tried to wipe them away with the back of his sleeve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, don’t tell me it was the first death you’ve ever witnessed…” Jisung’s voice began to trail off as confused and devastated expressions warred on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nodded, tears welling in his eyes again as he quickly tried to hide his face in embarrassment behind his sleeves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, baby.” Jisung said with a small pout, reaching out as if beckoning for Felix to come get a hug. “It’s okay. I’m okay!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Felix did not approach, instead shaking his head profusely as he continued to hide his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho please don’t kill me!” Felix squeaked out, dropping to his knees instead and rubbing his hands together in a pleading gesture.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho was suddenly taken aback by this odd behavior from Felix. He had no idea why he was acting this way and assuming that he was just going to kill him for no reason. It was like a hot blade had been plunged into Minho’s subconscious at the sudden realization of just how scared Felix really must have been of him. Despite the months they had lived under the same roof, it was evident that Felix was still terrified.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“K-kill you?!” Minho blinked wildly in surprise. “Why the hell would I kill you?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyunjin told me about what happened to Changbin and I swear I really didn’t mean it!” Felix blurted out, nearly groveling on the ground at this point</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That gossipy b—” Minho cursed under his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho frustratedly rubbed his face as he took in a deep breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to kill you.” Minho replied sternly with an agitated huff, walking over to him and roughly pulling him back up to his feet. “You didn’t murder Jisung. It was a mistake. It’s not your fault.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho took a strong grip on Felix’s shoulders and ducked down slightly in an attempt to make eye contact but he could see the tears in Felix’s eyes as his gaze was solely fixed on the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, hey! Look at me.” Minho called in a much softer voice as Felix reluctantly turned to look at him. “This wasn’t your fault. Jisung is just a reckless idiot. Don’t blame yourself for any of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s true. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> a reckless idiot!” Jisung called as he slowly and shakily picked himself up off the ground to a standing position. “But I’m fine now, don’t worry!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would never hurt you Felix.” Minho replied in a reassuring tone. “I swear on it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix gave a pout and frantically nodded in acceptance but deep down he still wasn’t entirely sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry I just… I don’t know—I’m just still not used to things and I let my emotions get the best of me.” Felix replied hesitantly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay, death</span>
  <em>
    <span> is</span>
  </em>
  <span> a scary thing if you’re not used to it. Your feelings are valid. Now how about we all head home, okay?” Minho suggested as Felix frantically wiped his tears again, letting out another loud snuffle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, if you still feel bad, you can give me a ride home because I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>exhausted</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Jisung said with a laugh and Felix happily obliged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix hoisted Jisung in a piggyback as Minho picked up Felix’s old broom and began to make their way home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Man I’m sleepy.” Jisung said with a big yawn, leaning his head against Felix’s shoulder as they walked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can rest all you want once we get home. I know resurrections are extremely draining for you and me both.” Minho calmly reassured him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jisung just gave a sleepy nod.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks Minho.” Felix said quietly as he shifted Jisung on his back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For what?” Minho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know… I guess for saving Jisung?” Felix replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho didn’t reply and instead just gave a small smirk and ruffled Felix’s silver hair but Felix still couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy and on edge about everything that had just happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Later that night after everyone was home safe and sound and Jisung had recounted the day’s events to Hyunjin and Changbin followed by them both berating him for being an idiot, the others began to settle in for the night. It was only then that Minho noticed that he hadn’t seen Felix at all since they had come home, he hadn’t even come down for dinner to eat with them. It was only when he heard the noise of something rustling in the kitchen that he even knew Felix was even still in the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix!” Minho called from the living room as Felix had tried to sneak past him and to the stairs without being noticed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every hair on Felix’s body stood on end and a shudder ran through him. He slowly turned around and reluctantly doubled back to the door to the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh hey Minho, didn’t see you there.” Felix lied horribly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should probably talk.” Minho said calmly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho beckoned for Felix to come over and join him and Felix nervously made his way over, sitting rigidly on the couch entirely too far from him with the small plate of food he had grabbed from the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An awkward silence permeated the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I feel like I need to explain things. A lot of things. I really don’t want you being scared of me.” Minho finally spoke up, leaning forward and linking his fingers. “I can only assume that living here has been more than a little overwhelming for you so I might as well just put everything out there in the open.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix nodded and gave a bit of a nervous gulp as Minho launched into a long winded explanation as to how the guest house came to be and about how he found out he was a necromancer in an attempt to put Felix's mind at ease.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess I’d better start from the beginning…”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Shit's about to get real dark real fast.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning for blood and other gory things popping up later in the chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was safe to assume that Minho did not exactly have a normal upbringing but it was hard to imagine just how quickly his family life deteriorated. Despite coming from a fairly prominent line of a once powerful family of witches, he no longer considered the people who were of blood relation to him as family. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Typically when the children of a family of witches reached the age of 8, they would begin to start showing the first signs of magical ability. But Minho was different. At first his family had thought he might have been born without any abilities at all as Minho was nearly 10 years old and he had yet to show even the slightest inkling of magic. His cousins and other relatives often teased him and would often call him mundane, a derogatory term used towards those of magic bloodlines who did not possess any powers themselves. Minho hated them for calling him that but despite his protests, deep down he feared that it might just be true. Maybe he really was just… mundane.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One warm summer morning everything quickly changed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately it was for the worse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho had been sitting in the small garden outside his family home, furiously scribbling nonsensical symbols and patterns in a small journal when he heard a soft thud come from behind him. Looking around, he couldn’t seem to pinpoint what had caused the noise and placing his book on the ground, he cautiously got up to investigate. It didn’t take long for him to discover the body of a small finch laying on the ground beneath one of the house’s windows. While most children would have left the bird where it lay, Minho scooped up the small creature, giving it a gentle rub with his thumb as if trying to wake it from a deep sleep. He was somewhat disappointed when it showed no reaction to his touch. Cradling it in his palms, he carefully carried it over to where his parents had been sitting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened to it? Why won’t it wake up?” Minho asked in a small voice as he held out his hands to show his father the small bird.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Minho…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His father gave him a forlorn expression before bending down and gently placing a hand on Minho’s shoulder in a reassuring manner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m afraid it’s dead.” He replied, looking over the small bird, giving it a small prod to confirm his suspicions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But why did it have to die?” Minho asked in a more curious tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately these things just happen.” His father replied with a sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I want it to live.” Minho continued with a pout as he became fixated on the tiny bird. “I don’t want it to be dead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sadly there isn’t anything we can do about it. Death is a fickle thing.” His father began to say before he started to notice a strange red glow appear from beneath the small bird, seemingly coming from Minho’s hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In an instant the bird sprung to life in Minho’s hands, giving a startled chirp before flying up into the air and out of view. Minho smiled happily as the bird flew away but as he turned his eyes to his parents he was met with looks of shock and horror.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho what did you just do!?” His father hissed out as he slowly got back to his feet, putting several feet between Minho and himself as if he were actually frightened of the small child.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno?” Minho shrugged. “I just wished for it to be alive again. That’s all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Minho looked at his parents expecting praise for finally being able to use some sort of magic he was instead met with concerned stares. His mother quickly got up and grabbed the journal he had left on the ground, frantically leafing through the pages, eyes wide as she couldn’t believe what she saw on the pages.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho, sweetie, where did you learn these symbols?” She asked, her voice trembling as she held the open book out towards Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho just shrugged. “I dunno, they just sort of popped into my head. What do they mean? Are they something bad?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minho! Where did you learn these! Who taught you these?!” His mother repeated in a much more harsh tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one!” Minho retorted. “I swear!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho was quickly becoming upset as he couldn’t understand what he had done wrong or why his parents were suddenly acting like this towards him. He honestly thought he had done the right thing by saving the small bird.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His mother and father exchanged some heated words before his mother grabbed onto his wrist and quickly dragged him into the house. Minho could barely keep up as he was forcefully dragged upstairs and into his small bedroom, being roughly shoved inside and the door being immediately locked  behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did I do?! What’s wrong?!” Minho called from the other side of the door. “Mother </span>
  <em>
    <span>please</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tears began welling in his eyes as he became more and more scared as to what was happening. He tried pounding on the door but there was no answer from either of his parents and he could only barely make out muffled voices from the adjacent room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next couple hours were a frantic blur but it was the first time Minho heard the word “necromancer” be used and the first time he ever felt betrayed by his once loving family. He remained locked in his room, sitting in a corner, his knees pulled tightly against his chest as his family “dealt with things” as they had said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately Minho was able to overhear their heated telephone discussions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His parents didn’t want the responsibility of raising a necromancer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were scared of him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scared of what he could eventually become.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen Minho, you’re going to be staying with some really nice people for a little while.” Minho’s father instructed as he was hurriedly rushed out of the house and into a waiting taxi, scared and alone with only a small suitcase of belongings with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But as the taxi pulled away, that would end of being the last time Minho would see his parents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho was sent to become a ward of the local coven his family bloodline had once founded and belonged to. It was then that he essentially became an orphan as his family no longer wanted any association with him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The final nail in the coffin was when he was forced to change his family name, taking on the surname Lee from the coven instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had essentially been erased from his own family tree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took weeks after he arrived at the coven to finally learn that he really was—what he was actually capable of and why people were scared of him—but by that time he was already broken, the scars of trauma already running deep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t until the will-reading of the deceased distant relative—the one that ended up leaving the guest house to Minho—that Minho had actually been reunited with his immediate family many years later, many of whom were surprised to see that he was even still alive. A rumour had been circulated that the reason he had suddenly disappeared was because he had fallen ill and passed due to a mysterious illness, not because he had been left at the mercy of the coven, abandoned and forced to change his own name due to his family’s narcissistic pride. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now with the guest house in his name he was determined to prove he was fully capable of living as a normal human witch in spite of them and that he wasn’t the dangerous monster they had made him out to be for more than half his life. He wasn’t going to allow himself to fail because failure only meant that his family and the coven had won. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even with his new found confidence and his three familiars at his side, he still struggled to come to terms with his upbringing as well as his own abilities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But of course Minho’s backstory wasn’t quite that simple as Felix quickly learned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh I’ve just sort of glossed over so much.” Minho said with a sigh as he gave his neck a roll. “I should probably double back to my time at the coven and my powers and the dangers associated with them since I never really explained </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> of that. If this gets to be too much or too depressing just let me know, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix just silently nodded, mouth slightly agape and his eyes wide as he clung to Minho’s every word.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Growing up as a ward of the coven was not an easy task for anyone no matter what their circumstances or personal standing was. The coven that Minho’s family had been a part of owned a large decrepit coven-run shelter of sorts located in an old apartment building on the edge of one of the older neighbourhoods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Each floor of the building housed around twenty rooms with shared showers and facilities to house the less fortunate. Many of the boys on his floor were children; orphans, many due to various traumatic circumstances. Others, like Minho, had been presented with unusual powers that were considered a danger to society and were brought here to be supervised and rehabilitated. It also wasn’t uncommon for cursed humans to show up for treatment while others were just normal witches down on their luck with nowhere else to go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the basement of the building was a small school and medical facility where the children were taught to use basic magic and received treatment. However it was also where they were at the full mercy of the coven in their attempts to re-integrate their residents with the human world no matter how drastic their rehabilitation methods might have been.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The day Minho arrived was probably one of the worst days of his young life. The moment he arrived he was coldly ushered inside and upstairs to a small single bedroom, his small bag of personal items immediately being confiscated from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s going on?” Minho asked in a broken voice to the elderly witch who had escorted him to this room as he despondently sat down on the bare mattress.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Congratulations, you’re now a ward of the coven.” She replied in a distracted tone as she rummaged through his personal items looking for anything dangerous.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But… what does that mean?” Minho pressed. “When are my parents coming back?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh sweetie.” The old witch let out a long sigh as she looked up at Minho with a look of dejection. “It means we will be looking after you. We are your family now. Your parents aren’t coming back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But… why? I don’t understand what is going on or why I’m here?” Minho replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know what a necromancer is?” The woman asked but Minho shook his head ‘no.’ “It’s because you’re a monster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho’s heart dropped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, wait, wait, I’m heading on a tangent again. You don’t need to know about every single depressing detail of my childhood.” Minho sighed once more. “Let’s skip ahead to the stuff that really matters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For years Minho lived alone in the tiny room in the rundown coven-owned apartment building, under the constant supervision of the coven leaders. Unlike many of the other wards who were permitted to summon a familiar by the time they were thirteen or fourteen years old, being a necromancer, Minho was considered far too dangerous to have a familiar and was not permitted to summon one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had originally attempted to make friends but those who lived within the walls of the coven were less than favourable people to keep company with. They were not exactly all that accepting of him either once they found out he was a necromancer so he often spent his time alone, reading up on his own abilities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But isolation wasn’t his only issue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The night after Minho had brought the bird back to life and had subsequently arrived at the coven was when the night terrors started. At first they were a very rare occurrence, only happening once or twice every few months and at first he had thought they were nothing more than nightmares. But they started to become more and more frequent as time passed, manifesting in new and unimaginably horrible ways each and every time and leaving lasting scars on Minho’s mental health.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite being so young, Minho was hungry for knowledge and was extremely perceptive. He would often hear the elders at the coven whispering about someone named Daniel who they often compared to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But what if he turns out like Daniel did? What if he loses control?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He figured this Daniel individual must have been a necromancer much like himself but after conducting his own research, he was left with more questions than answers. He had found that Daniel had been a ward of the coven much like himself and was in fact a necromancer as he had thought. However, Daniel had arrived at the coven much later in life when his powers were much more developed… and much more volatile. He had never learned restraint but was constantly tormented by the side effects from his own powers, eventually driving him to madness while living at the coven. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were notes in the coven files that mentioned something terrible happening many years earlier, leaving ten occupants of the coven dead and that Daniel was somehow directly responsible. They did not go into any details about what had actually occurred other than a couple notes scribbled in the corner that read “</span>
  <em>
    <span>the spirits of the dead have been unleashed upon the coven</span>
  </em>
  <span>” and “he has </span>
  <em>
    <span>consumed by darkness and must be stopped at any cost even if we must take his life as well</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It shook Minho to his core.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho never learned what exactly had happened to Daniel but that only caused him to delve further into researching what he was, what he was actually capable of and how his powers worked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quickly learned that the more he used his newly blossoming powers in any way whatsoever, the worse the night terrors became as there was a direct correlation between his magic use and the bridge to the realm of the dead. While other witches often drew their powers from nature or the demon realm, he instead drew his directly from the realm of the dead. So the more magic he used, the narrower the divide became between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead, allowing the dead to manifest before him much more easily and frequently much to his own displeasure. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho could usually tell when some sort of sinister manifestation was about to occur. They were almost always preceded by either a terrible headache or a deafening ringing sound in his ears and at the first signs of trouble he would immediately isolate himself. Until he could learn how to control whatever power this was, it was the only way he could be sure to prevent any harm from coming to anyone else if he were to unintentionally let </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> through. Because of this he also started to abstain from the use of basic magic completely, refusing to practice and often skipping the lectures he was assigned by the coven, instead hiding away until a staff member would find him and drag him back to his studies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course the coven elders refused to listen to Minho’s reasoning for abstaining from magic use as not much was really known about necromancy apart from their past dealings with Daniel. The realm of the dead and the effects of this source of power on the user were impossible variables to take into account for them so Minho was forced to continue to practice magic as part of his ‘rehabilitation’. But of course this prolonged magic use only worsened his condition the more powerful he became.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a couple years he could perform extremely complex spells and charms, faster than any other witch at the coven had ever seen, especially from a witch who had not even summoned a familiar, but it came at a devastating cost to Minho.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now that the source of his magic had forced him to reveal himself to the dead, they were constantly seeking him out via his dreams, begging him to bring them back or do their sinister bidding. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he couldn’t let them through. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wouldn’t let them through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the age of sixteen, Minho had almost become accustomed to the night terrors and had developed a series of counter curses—with no help from the coven—to help combat them at no harm to anyone but himself. However, after a particularly exhausting day where Minho’s magic had been pushed to its limits, things took a dangerous turn and the reality of just how dangerous the dead were quickly became apparent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Necromaaancerrr.” A sinister voice whispered into Minho's ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leave me alone.” Minho grumbled as he grabbed for his pillow, pulling it tightly over his ears to drown out the voice, praying the new sleeping pills would kick in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Necromancer, set us free.” The voice continued, having shifted to his other ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Free us necromancer!” Another disembodied voice spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Free us!” A third chimed in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a matter of minutes the entire room was filled with an entire chorus of spin-chilling voices begging to be set free as dark shadows spread across the walls and ceiling, a dozen foreboding presences looming over him. Minho tossed and turned, eyes shut tightly as the voices only grew louder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said leave me alone!” He frustratedly yelled into the darkness but as soon he sat up and opened his eyes his room was empty and he was completely alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With an agitated sigh Minho flopped back onto his bed, pulling his comforter up to his chin as he tried to fall back asleep. After an hour or so of restless sleep, Minho rolled onto his side, his hand dangling over the edge of the mattress when he suddenly felt something wet drip onto his hand. Still partially asleep he gave his hand a bit of a flick but as soon as he lowered his hand again the wet sensation returned only more intense this time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Figuring it must have been a leak dripping from the ceiling, he slowly pulled his hand back up, his eyes struggling to focus in the dim light of the room. When his vision finally came-to, he immediately jolted awake and scrambled to push himself up against the head of his bed. His hand and fingers were covered in thick red blood that was slowly dripping down his arm. Quickly coming to the conclusion that his hand was not injured in any way, he frantically searched his surroundings, looking up at the ceiling while trying to find the source. He even went so far as to dab his own nose with his clean hand to check for any sign of nosebleed but his hand came back completely dry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho’s heart began to beat frantically, not knowing where the blood had come from or if it was even from a human. It was only then that his eyes caught some sort of movement in the darkness at the foot of his bed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His heart was pounding in his ears as he quickly whipped the sheets back only to discover there was nothing there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop playing these fucking games.” Minho angrily muttered. “Just let me sleep!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once more he caught movement out of the corner of his eye as some sort of shadowy mass disappeared beneath his bed. Taking in a deep breath he cautiously leaned over the edge to look, but once again whatever it was had disappeared. He leaned back with a bit of a sigh, still gingerly holding his bloody hand to the side in an futile attempt to not drip blood anywhere. However when he turned his attention back to his hand to clean it up he noticed the amount blood had increased dramatically and it was now dripping all over his bedsheets and seeping into his mattress.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Our blood is on your hands necromancer.” A voice hissed out of the darkness. “Free us!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop it!” Minho yelled as the shadowy figures appeared on the wall once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He began to panic but before he could even make a move, blood began seeping up through the floorboards beneath him, quickly pooling and spreading across the floor. Minho let out a frustrated cry out of sheer exhaustion knowing what was about to happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Drip.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A large spatter of blood dripped onto his right cheek. He quickly wiped it away with his clean hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Drip. Drip.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Several large blood splatters landed on his white sheets, instantly feathering into large red splotches. As soon as Minho looked up at the ceiling to find the source, another large drop of blood splattered right between his eyes and began dripping down the bridge of his nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho began reciting a counter curse under his breath but suddenly his voice hitched in his throat as he began violently coughing up more and more blood. His entire body heaved as several fingers were ejected from his throat, slopping onto the sheets in front of him. The bloody digits began wriggling in their own bodily fluids as small pieces of sinew and flesh slowly began to form between them until a blackened and mangled hand had materialized in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Minho sat wheezing, doubled over on the bed, the blood that had been pooling through the floorboards was now flooding the room. The thick red liquid sloshed back and forth almost in waves as it quickly crept towards the top of his mattress, the sheets and bedding quickly staining red in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gathering up the last of his energy Minho scrambled towards the head of his bed as the blood levels rose faster and faster until the entire lower end of his bed was submerged. As he clung to his headboard in an attempt to stay as far away from the sea of blood as possible he tried to call out for help but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to be able to muster a single word.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blackened and gnarled, corpse-like hand slowly began to claw its way up out of the pool of blood at Minho's feet, immediately taking a strong hold around his ankle as he desperately tried to kick it away. The hand dug its ragged nails into his tender flesh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It hurt. It actually hurt. They had never been able to inflict pain before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a powerful yank, it dragged the lower half of Minho’s body off the sinking bed and into the thick, warm blood. The more Minho tried to resist, the higher the blood levels rose and the further he was dragged down. More and more ghoulish hands at various stages of decomposition emerged and latched tightly onto his body until he was trashing and struggling just to keep his head above the surface. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A pair of hands had found their way around his throat as he wheezed for air and another hand had clamped itself tightly over Minho’s mouth. It wasn’t long before the sheer number of limbs wrapped around his body had weighed him down, finally pulling him fully under the surface. Minho fought with all his waning strength but all too quickly the intrusive voices began fogging his mind making it harder and harder to fight against them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give in to the darkness necromancer. You know they all would rather have you dead anyways.” The voices called. “If you won’t free us… join us…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fight as he did, it wasn’t long before the corpses had overpowered him, pulling him farther and farther away from the surface. When his final breath ran out, he could feel the blood slowly filling his lungs. The voices became louder and louder around him until the noise was almost deafening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the darkness closed in on him he suddenly awoke with a violent jolt, lying face down on his bed completely drenched in blood not of his own but not a single other drop could be seen elsewhere in the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His breathing was heavy and frantic and his chest was heaving as he slowly pushed himself up on all fours, his hands trembling as globs of blood dripped from his wet hair onto the clean, untouched sheets beneath him. He tried to open his eyes but the blood caused them to sting horribly and he frustratedly wiped his face with his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not again.” He muttered out through gritted teeth as his bloody fingers dug into the bedsheet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He never quite knew if what he had experienced was some sort of realistic dream or premonition or if his subconscious had unintentionally tapped into something it shouldn’t have but this time he was certain it was not a dream. The bloody evidence spoke for itself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Within a minute or so of pulling himself out of the night terror, it was like his mind suddenly went into autopilot mode as he quickly compartmentalized what had just happened. He immediately focused solely on cleaning himself up, dragging himself out of bed and to the communal showers down the hall, leaving a trail of bloody footprints as he did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the hot water washed over him, Minho’s nerves slowly calmed down and his heart rate began to steady itself once more. He found it almost cathartic watching as the blood swirled down the drain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was safe. It was over. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knew it would be a couple days at worst, a couple weeks at best before it would happen again and that gave him some strange piece of mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only when he noticed the dark purple bruising around his ankle where one of the corpses had grabbed onto him that concern began to grow within him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That had never happened before. They had never been able to leave marks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was used to the night terrors and the insomnia, he was used to the voices, he was used to the darkness, he was even used to the blood now and then, but the bruising… the bruising was new. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had never been able to physically hurt him before now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he exited the shower and caught his reflection in the washroom mirror he noticed several more large bruises scattered over his body including around his neck. He gingerly felt over one of the bruises just above his collar bone. They were still tender and they were definitely real. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever lurked in the darkness had discovered how to make physical contact.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He trudged back to his bedroom, wiping up the bloody footprints he had left as he went with a damp towel. Before going back to sleep he proceeded to rip the bloodied sheets off the bed, tossing them to the floor and opting to just sleep on the bare mattress for the rest of the night instead. He reached into his side drawer to find a bottle of sleeping pills, quickly shaking out an extra strong dose into the palm of his hand and swallowing them down dry. He prayed they would kick in soon enough as he slowly curled up on the bare mattress.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the morning he gathered up his bedding and groggily made his way to the basement of the house where the laundry was located. As he neared the basement he was confronted by one of the other young witches who lived at the coven. He gave Minho an odd look with a raised eyebrow as he walked by carrying his sheets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wet the bed or something?” The witch sneered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho didn’t bother to respond, merely letting his hand drop ever so slightly, allowing for the large blood stains on the sheet to become visible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck.” The witch cursed as they cowered away. “You’re a freak, you know that?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minho paid him no attention and continued on his way to the laundry room, his mind only set on cleaning up the mess from the night before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix? Felix, you still with me?”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Stayed tuned for part 2...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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